Yedinci Şuâ/en

The Supreme Sign

(*)

AN IMPORTANT WARNING AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Not everyone will be able to understand all the matters discussed in this most significant treatise, but equally nobody will remain portionless. If somebody enters a garden, he will find that his hands cannot reach all the fruit it contains, but the amount that falls within his grasp will be enough for him. The garden does not exist for him alone; it exists also for those whose arms are longer than his.

There are five causes making difficult the understanding of this book.

The First:I have written down my own observations, according to my own understanding, and for myself. I have not written according to the understanding and conceptions of others, as is the case with other books.

The Second: Since the true affirmation of Divine unity is set forth in this book, in the most comprehensive form, by virtue of a manifestation of the Supreme Name, the subjects discussed are extremely broad, extremely profound and sometimes extremely long. Not everyone can comprehend these matters all at once.

The Third: Since each matter constitutes a great and extensive truth, a single sentence will sometimes stretch out over a whole page or more, in order not to fracture the truth in question. A single proof requires copious preliminaries.

The Fourth: Since most of the matters contained in the book have numerous proofs and evidences, the discussion sometimes becomes prolix through the inclusion of ten or twenty proofs by way of demonstration. Limited intelligences cannot understand this.

The Fifth: It is true that the lights of this treatise came to me from the effulgence of Ramadan. Nonetheless, I was distraught in a number of respects, and I wrote the book hastily at a time my body was wracked by several illnesses, without revising the first draft. I felt, moreover, that I was not writing with my own will and volition, and it seemed inappropriate to rearrange or correct what I had written, according to my own thoughts. This, too, resulted in rendering the book difficult of comprehension. In addition, a number of sections in Arabic crept in, and the First Station, written entirely in Arabic, was removed and made into a separate work.

Despite the defects and difficulties arising from these five causes, this treatise has such an importance that Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) miraculously foresaw its composition and gave it the names “Supreme Sign” and “Staff of Moses.” He looked upon this part of the Risale-i Nur with special favour, and directed man’s gaze toward it.(*)

The Supreme Sign is a true exposition of the Supreme Verse,(*)and it constitutes at the same time the Seventh Ray, designated by the Imam as the Staff of Moses.

This treatise consists of an Introduction and two Stations. The Introduction sets forth four important matters; the First Station contains the Arabic portion of the exposition of the Supreme Verse; and the Second Station consists of the translation of that expostion together with the accompanying proofs.

Too much has been explained in the following Introduction, but it was not my intention to lengthen it thus. The fact that it was written at this length indicates the existence of a need. Indeed, some people may regard it as too short, despite its length.

Said Nursî

Introduction

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

I created not jinn and mankind except that they might worship me.(*)

According to the meaning of this mighty verse, the purpose for the sending of man to this world and the wisdom implicit in it, consists of recognizing the Creator of all beings and believing in Him and worshipping Him. The primordial duty of man and the obligation incumbent upon him are to know God and believe in Him, to assent to His Being and unity in submission and perfect certainty.

For man, who by nature desires permanent life and immortal existence, whose unlimited hopes are matched by boundless afflictions, any object or accomplishment other than belief in God, knowledge of God and the means for attaining these, which are the fundament and key of eternal life — any such object or accomplishment must be regarded as lowly for man, or even worthless in many cases.

Since this truth has been proven with firm evidence in the Risale-i Nur, we refer exposition of it to that, setting forth here, within the framework of four questions, only two abysses that shake certainty of faith in this age and induce hesitation.

The means for salvation from the first abyss

are these two Matters:

The First Matter: As proven in detail in the Thirteenth Flash of the Thirty-First Letter, in general questions denial has no value in the face of proof and is extremely weak.

For example, with respect to the sighting of the crescent moon at the beginning of Ramadan the Noble, if two common men prove the crescent to have emerged by their witnessing it, and thousands of nobles and scholars deny it, saying: “We have not seen it,” their negation is valueless and without power to convince. When it is a question of proof each person strengthens and supports the other, and consensus results. But when it is a question of negation, there is no difference between one man and a thousand. Each person remains alone and isolated.

For the one who affirms looks beyond himself and judges the matter as it is. Thus in the example we have given, if one says “The moon is in the sky,” and his friend then points his finger at the moon, the two of them unite and are strengthened.

The one who engages in negation and denial, however, does not regard the matter as it is, and is even unable to do so. For it is a well-known principle that “a non- particularized denial, not directed to a particular locus, cannot be proven.” For example, if I affirm the existence of a thing in the world, and you deny it, I can easily establish its existence with a single indication. But for you to justify your negation, that is to establish the non-existence of the thing — it is necessary to hunt exhaustively through the whole world, and even to examine every aspect of past ages. Only then can you say, “It does not exist, and never has existed.”

Since those who negate and deny do not regard the matter as it is but judge rather in the light of their own souls, and their own intelligence and vision, they can in no way strengthen and support each other. For the veils and causes that prevent them from seeing and knowing are various. Anyone can say, “I do not see it; therefore, in my opinion and belief, it does not exist.” But none can say, “It does not exist in actuality.” If someone says this —particularly in questions of belief, which look to all the universe— it is a lie as vast as the world itself, and he who utters it will be incapable both of speaking the truth and of being corrected.

In Short: The result is one and single in the case of affirmation, and every instance of affirmation supports all other instances. Negation by contrast is not one, but multiple. Multiplicity arises through each person’s saying concerning himself, “In my opinion and view,” or “In my belief,” and leads to multiplicity of result. Hence each separate instance cannot support all other instances.

Therefore, with respect to the truth with which we began, there is no significance in the multiplicity and apparent predominance of the unbelievers and deniers who oppose belief. Now it is necessary to refrain from introducing any hesitation into the certainty and faith of a believer, but in this age the negations and denials of the philosophers of Europe have induced doubt in a number of unfortunate dupes and thus destroyed their certainty and obliterated their eternal felicity. Death and the coming of one’s appointed hour, which afflict thirty thousand men each day, are deprived of their meaning of dismissal from this world and presented as eternal annihilation. The grave with its ever-open door, constantly threatens the denier with annihilation and poisons his life with the bitterest of sorrows. Appreciate then how great a blessing is faith, and the very essence of life.

The Second Matter: With respect to a problem subject to discussion in science or art, those who stand outside that science or art cannot speak authoritatively, however great, learned and accomplished they may be, nor can their judgements be accepted as decisive.

They cannot form part of the learned consensus of the science. For example, the judgement of a great engineer on the diagnosis and cure of a disease does not have the same value as that of the lowliest physician. In particular, the words of denial of a philosopher who is absorbed in the material sphere, who becomes continually more remote from the non-material or spiritual and cruder and more insensitive to light, whose intelligence is restricted to what his eye beholds — the words of such a one are unworthy of consideration and valueless with respect to non- material and spiritual matters.

On matters sacred and spiritual and concerning the Divine unity, there is total accord among the hundreds of thousands of the People of Truth, such as Shaykh Gilani (May his mystery be sanctified), who beheld God’s Sublime Throne while still on the earth, who spent ninety years ad-vancing in spiritual work, and who unveiled the truths of belief in all three stations of certainty. This being the case what value have the words of philosophers, who through their absorption in the most diffuse details of the material realm and the most minute aspects of multiplicity are choking and dazed? Are not their denials and objections drowned out like the buzzing of a mosquito by the roaring of thunder?

The essence of the unbelief that opposes the truths of Islam and struggles against them is denial, ignorance, and negation. Even though it may appear to be an affirmation of some kind and a manifestation of being, it is in reality negation and non- being.

Whereas belief is knowledge and a manifestation of being; it is affirmation and judgement. Every negating aspect of belief is the gate to a positive truth or the veil covering it.

If the unbelievers who struggle against faith attempt, with the utmost difficulty, to affirm and accept their negative beliefs in the form of acceptance and admission of non-being, then their unbelief may be regarded in one respect as a form of mistaken knowledge or erroneous judgement. But as for non-acceptance, denial, and non-admission —something more easily done— it is absolute ignorance and total absence of judgement.

In Short: The convictions underlying unbelief are then of two kinds:

The First pays no regard to the truths of Islam. It is an erroneous admission, a baseless belief and a mistaken acceptance peculiar to itself; it is an unjust judgement. This kind of unbelief is beyond the scope of our discussion. It has no concern with us, nor do we have any concern with it.

The Second Kind opposes the truths of belief and struggles against them. It consists in turn of two varieties.

The First is non-acceptance. It consists simply of not consenting to affirmation. This is a species of ignorance; there is no judgement in-volved and it occurs easily. It too is beyond the scope of our discussion.

The Second variety is acceptance of non-being. It is to consent to non-being with one’s heart, and a judgement is involved. It is a conviction and a taking the part of something. It is on account of this partiality that it is obliged to affirm its negation.

The negation comprises two types:

The First Type says: “A certain thing does not exist at a certain place or in a particular direction.” This kind of denial can be proved, and it lies outside of our discussion.

The Second Type consists of negating and denying those doctrinal and sacred matters, general and comprehensive, that concern this world, all beings, the hereafter, and the succession of different ages. This kind of negation cannot in any fashion be substantiated, as we have shown in the First Matter, for what is needed to substantiate such negations is a vision that shall encompass the whole universe, behold the hereafter, and observe every aspect of time without limit.

The Second Abyss and the means for escaping from it:

This too consists of two matters.

The First: Intelligences that become narrowed by absorption in neglect of God and in sin, or the material realm, are unable to comprehend vast matters in respect of sublimity, grandeur, and infinity; hence taking pride in such knowledge as they have, they hasten to denial and negation. Since they cannot encompass the extremely vast, profound and comprehensive questions of faith within their straitened and dessicated intellects, their corrupt and spiritually moribund hearts, they cast themselves into unbelief and misguidance, and choke.

If they were able to look at the true nature of their unbelief and the essence of their misguidance they would see that, compared to the reasonable, suitable and indeed necessary sublimity and grandeur that is present in belief, their unbelief conceals and contains manifold absurdity and impossibility.

The Risale-i Nur has proven this truth by hundreds of comparisons with the same finality that “two plus two equals four.” For example, one who does not accept the Necessary Being, the pre-eternity, and the comprehensiveness of attribute of God Almighty, on account of their grandeur and sublimity, may form a creed of unbelief by assigning that necessary being, pre-eternity, and the attributes of Godhead to an unlimited number of beings, an infinity of atoms. Or like the foolish Sophists, he can abdicate his intelligence by denying and negating both his own existence and that of the universe.

Thus, all the truths of belief and Islam, basing their matters on the grandeur and sublimity which are their requirement, deliver themselves from the awesome absurdities, the fearsome superstitions, and the tenebrous ignorance of unbelief that confront them, and take up their place in sound hearts and straight intellects, through utmost submission and assent.

The constant proclamation of this grandeur and sublimity in the call to prayer, in the prayers themselves and in most of the rites of Islam, Allahu akbar, God is Most Great! God is Most Great! God is Most Great! the declaration of the Sacred Tradition that “Grandeur is My shield and Sublimity My cloak;”(*)and the statement of the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) — his most inspiring communing with God, in the eighty-sixth part of Jawshan al-Kabir:(*)

O You other than Whose Kingdom no kingdom exists; O You Whose Praise cannot be counted by His slaves;

O You Whose Glory cannot be described by His creatures;

O You Whose Perfection lies beyond the range of all vision;

O You Whose Attributes exceed the bounds of all understanding; O You Whose Grandeur is beyond the reach of all thought;

O You Whose Qualities man cannot fittingly describe;

O You Whose Decree His slaves cannot avert; O You Whose Signs are manifest in everything —Be You glorified; there is no god other than You— Protection, protection, deliver us from the Fire!

all these show that grandeur and sublimity constitute a necessary veil.

The Supreme Sign

The Observations of a Traveller Questioning the Universe Concerning His Maker

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The seven heavens and the earth and all that is in them extol and glorify Him, and there is nothing but glorifies Him with praise, but you understand not their glorifying; indeed, He is Most Forebearing, Most Forgiving.(*)

[This Second Station, in addition to explaining the above sublime verse, sets out the proofs, arguments, and meaning of the First Station, which has been skipped.] Since this sublime verse, like many other Qur’anic verses, mentions first the heavens —that brilliant page proclaiming God’s unity, gazed on at all times and by all men with wonder and joy— in its pronouncement of the Creator of this cosmos, let us too begin with a mention of the heavens.

Indeed, every voyager who comes to the hospice and the realm of this world, opens his eyes and wonders who is the master of this fine hospice, which resembles a most generous banquet, a most ingenious exhibition, a most impressive camp and training ground, a most amazing and wondrous place of recreation, a most profound and wise place of instruction. He asks himself too who is the author of this great book, and who is the monarch of this lofty realm. There first presents itself to him the beautiful face of the heavens, inscribed with the gilt lettering of the stars. That face calls him saying, “Look at me, and I shall guide you to what you seek.” He looks then and sees a manifestation of dominicality performing various tasks in the heavens:

it holds aloft in the heavens, without any supporting pillar, hundreds of thousands of heavenly bodies, some of which are a thousand times heavier than the earth and revolve seventy times faster than a cannon-ball; it causes them to move in harmony and swiftly without colliding with each other; it causes innumerable lamps to burn constantly, without the use of any oil; it disposes of these great masses without any disturbance or disorder; it sets sun and moon to work at their respective tasks, without those great bodies ever rebelling; it administers within infinite space —the magnitude of which cannot be measured in figures should they stretch from pole to pole— all that exists, at the same time, with the same strength, in the same fashion, manner and mould, without the least deficiency; it reduces to submissive obedience to its law all the aggressive powers inherent in those bodies; it cleanses and lustrates the face of the heavens, removing all the sweepings and refuse of that vast assembly; it causes those bodies to manoeuvre like a disciplined army; and then, making the earth revolve, it shows the heavens each night and each year in a different form, like a cinema screen displaying true and imaginative scenes to the audience of creation. There is within this dominical activity a truth consisting of subjugation, administration, revolution, ordering, cleansing, and employment. This truth, with its grandeur and comprehensiveness, bears witness to the necessary existence and unity of the Creator of the Heavens and testifies to that Existence being more manifest than that of the heavens. Hence it was said in the First Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity the heavens and all they contain testify, through the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation, administration, revolution, ordering, cleansing, and employment, a truth vast and perfect, and to be observed.

Then that wondrous place of gathering known as space or the atmosphere begins thunderously to proclaim to that traveller come as a guest to the world, “Look at me! You can discover and find through me the object of your search, the one who sent you here!” The traveller looks at the sour but kind face of the atmosphere, and listening to the awesome but joyous thunderclaps perceives the following.

The clouds, suspended between the sky and the earth, water the garden of the world in the most wise and merciful fashion, furnish the inhabitants of the earth with the water of life, modify the natural heat of life, and hasten to bestow aid wherever it is needed. In addition to fulfilling these and other duties, the vast clouds, capable of filling the heavens sometimes hide themselves, with their parts retiring to rest so that not a trace can be seen, just like a well-disciplined army showing and hiding itself in accordance with sudden orders.Then, the very instant the command is given to pour down rain, the clouds gather in one hour, or rather in a few minutes; they fill the sky and await further orders from their commander.

Next the traveller looks at the wind in the atmosphere and sees that the air is employed wisely and generously in such numerous tasks that it is as if each of the inanimate atoms of that unconscious air were hearing and noting the orders coming from that monarch of the universe; without neglecting a single one of them, it performs them in ordered fashion and through the power of the monarch. Thereby it gives breath to all beings and conveys to all living things the heat, light, and electricty they need, and transmits sound, as well as aiding in the pollination of plants.

The traveller then looks at the rain and sees that within those delicate, glistening sweet drops, sent from a hidden treasury of mercy, there are so many compassionate gifts and functions contained that it is as if mercy itself were assuming shape and flowing forth from the dominical treasury in the form of drops. It is for this reason that rain has been called “mercy.”

Next the traveller looks at the lightning and listens to the thunder and ses that both of these, too, are employed in wondrous tasks.

Then taking his eyes off these, he looks to his own intellect and says: “The inanimate, lifeless cloud that resembles carded cotton has of course no knowledge of us; when it comes to our aid, it is not because it takes pity on us. It cannot appear and disappear without receiving orders. Rather it acts in accordance with the orders of a most powerful and compassionate commander. First it diasppears without leaving a trace, then suddenly reappears in order to begin its work. By the command and power of a most active and exalted, a most magnificent and splendid, monarch, it fills and then empties the atmosphere. Inscribing the sky with wisdom and erasing the pattern, it makes of the sky a tablet of effacement and affirmation, a depiction of the gathering and the resurrection. By the contriving of a most generous and bountiful, a most munificent and solicitous sustainer, a ruler who regulates and disposes, it mounts the wind and taking with it treasuries of rain each as heavy as a mountain, hastens to the aid of the needy. It is as if it were weeping over them in pity, with its tears causing the flowers to smile, tempering the heat of the sun, spraying gardens with water, and washing and cleansing the face of the earth.”

That wondering traveller then tells his own intellect: “These hundreds of thousands of wise, merciful and ingenious tasks and acts of generosity and mercy that arise from the veil and outer form of this inanimate, lifeless, unconscious, volatile, unstable, stormy, unsettled, and inconstant air, clearly establish that this diligent wind, this tireless servant, never acts of itself, but rather in accordance with the orders of a most powerful and knowing, a most wise and generous commander.

It is as if each particle were aware of every single task, like a soldier understanding and hearkening to every order of its commander, for it hears and obeys every dominical command that courses through the air. It aids all animals to breathe and to live, all plants to pollinate and grow, and cultivates all the matter necessary for their survival.It directs and administers the clouds, makes possible the voyaging of sailing ships, and enables sounds to be conveyed, particularly by means of wireless, telephone, telegraph and radio, as well as numerous other universal functions.“Now these atoms, each composed of two such simple materials as hydrogen and oxygen and each resembling the other, exist in hundreds of thousands of different fashions all over the globe; I conclude therefore that they are being employed and set to work in the utmost orderliness by a hand of wisdom.

“As the verse makes clear, And the disposition of the winds and the clouds, held in disciplined order between the heavens and the earth,(*)

the one who through the disposition of the winds employs them in countless dominical functions, who through the ordering of the clouds uses them in infinite tasks of mercy, and who creates the  air in this fashion — such a one can only be the Possessor of Necessary Existence, the One Empowered over All Things and Knowledgeable of All Things, the Sustainer endowed with Glory and Generosity.” This is the conclusion our traveller now draws.

Then he looks at the rain and sees that within it are contained benefits as numerous as the raindrops, and dominical manifestations as multiple as the particles of rain, and instances of wisdom as plentiful as its atoms. Those sweet, delicate and blessed drops are moreover created in so beautiful and ordered a fashion, that particularly the rain sent in the summertime, is despatched and caused to fall with such balance and regularity that not even stormy winds that cause large objects to collide can destroy its equilibrium and order; the drops do not collide with each other or merge in such fashion as to become harmful masses of water. Water, composed of two simple elements like hydrogen and oxygen, is employed in hundreds of thousands of other wise, purposeful tasks and arts, particularly in animate beings; although it is itself inanimate and unconscious. Rain which is then the very embodiment of Divine Mercy can only be manufactured in the unseen treasury of mercy of One Most Compassionate and Merciful, and on its descent expounds in physical form the verse: And He it is Who sends down rain after men have despaired, and thus spreads out His Mercy.(*)

The traveller next listens to the thunder and watches the lightning. He understands that these two wondrous events in the atmosphere are like a material demonstration of the verse,The thunder glorifies His praise,(*)The brilliance of His lightning almost robs them of their sight.(*)They also announce the coming of rain, and thus give glad tidings to the needy.

Yes, this sudden utterance of a miraculous sound by the atmosphere; the filling of the dark sky with the flash and fire of lightning; the setting alight of the clouds that resemble mountains of cotton or pipes bursting with water and snow — these and similar phenomena are like a blow struck on the head of the negligent man whose gaze is directed down at the earth. They tell him:“Lift up your head, look at the miraculous deeds of the most active and powerful being who wishes to make himself known. In the same way that you are not left to your own devices, so too, these phenomena and events have a master and a purpose. Each of them is caused to fulfil a particular task, and each is employed by a Most Wise Disposer.”

The wondering traveller hears then the lofty and manifest testimony to the truth that is composed of the disposition of the winds, the descent of the rains and the administration of the events of the atmosphere, and says: “I believe in God.” That which was stated in the Second Degree of the First Station expresses the observations of the traveller concerning the atmosphere:There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity the atmosphere and all its contains testifies, through the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation, disposal, causing to descend, and regulation, a truth vast and perfect, and to be observed.

Next the globe addresses that thoughtful traveller, now growing accustomed to his reflective journey: “Why are you wandering through the heavens, through space and the sky? Come, I will make known to you what you are seeking. Look at the functions that I perform and read my pages!”

He looks and sees that the globe, like an ecstatic Mevlevi dervish with its twofold motion, is tracing out around the field of the Supreme Gathering a circle that determines the succession of days, years, and seasons. It is a most magnificent dominical ship, loaded with the hundreds of thousands of different forms of food and equipment needed for all animate beings, floating with the utmost equilibrium in the ocean of space and circling the sun.

He then looks at the pages of the earth and sees that each page of each of its chapters proclaims the Sustainer of the Earth in thousands of verses. Being unable to read the whole of it, he looks at the page dealing with the creation and deployment of animate beings in the spring, and observes the following:

The forms of the countless members of hundreds of thousands of species emerge, in the utmost precision, from a simple material and are then nurtured in most merciful fashion. Then, in miraculous manner, wings are given to some of the seeds; they take to flight and are thus dispersed. They are most effectively distributed, most carefully fed and nurtured. Countless tasty and delicious forms of food, in the most merciful and tender fashion, are brought forth from dry clay, and from roots, seeds and drops of liquid that differ little among each other. Every spring, a hundred thousand kinds of food and equipment are loaded on it from an unseen treasury, as if onto a railway waggon, and are despatched in utmost orderliness to animate beings.

The sending to infants of canned milk in those food packages, and pumps of sugared milk in the form of their mothers’ affectionate breasts, is in particular such an instance of solicitousness, mercy and wisdom that it immediately establishes itself as a most tender manifestation of the mercy and generosity of the Merciful and Compassionate One.

In short: this living page of spring displays a hundred thousand examples and samples of the Supreme Gathering, and is a tangible demonstration of this verse, So look to the signs of God’s mercy: how He gives life to the earth after its death, for verily He it is Who gives life to the dead, and He has power over all things.(*)Moreover, this verse may be said to express in miraculous fashion the meanings of the page that is spring. The traveller thus understood that the earth proclaims through all its pages, in fashion proportionate to their size: “There is no god but He.”(*)

In expression of the meaning beheld by the traveller through the brief testimony of one of the twenty aspects of a single page out of the more than twenty pages of the globe, it was said in the Third Degree of the First Station:

There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity the earth with all that is in it and upon it testifies, through the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation, disposition, nurturing, opening, distribution of seeds, protection, administration, the giving of life to all animate beings, compassion and mercy universal and general, a truth vast and perfect, and to be observed.

Then that reflective traveller read each page of the cosmos, and as he did so his faith, that key to felicity, strengthened; his gnosis, that key to spiritual progress, increased; his belief in God, the source and foundation of all perfection, developed one degree more; his joy and pleasure augmented and aroused his eagerness; and while listening to the perfect and convincing lessons given by the sky, by space and the earth, he cried out for more. Then he heard the rapturous invocation of God made by the tumult of the seas and the great rivers, and listened to their sad yet pleasant sounds. In numerous ways they were saying to him: “Look at us, read also our signs!” Looking, our traveller saw the following:

The seas, constantly and vitally surging, merging and pouring forth with an inclination to conquest inherent in their very nature, surrounded the earth, and together with the earth, revolved, extremely swiftly, in a circle of twenty-five thousand years in a single year. Yet the seas did not disperse, did not overflow or encroach on the land contiguous to them. They moved and stood still, and were protected by the command and power of a most powerful and magnificent being.

Then looking to the depths of the sea, the traveller saw that apart from the most beautiful, well-adorned and symmetrical jewels, there were thousands of different kinds of animal, sustained and ordered, brought to life and caused to die, in so disciplined a fashion, their provision coming from mere sand and salt water, that it established irresistibly the existence of a Powerful and Glorious, a Merciful and Beauteous Being administering and giving life to them.

The traveller then looks at the rivers and sees that the benefits inherent in them, the functions they perform, and their continual replenishment, are inspired by such wisdom and mercy as indisputably to prove that all rivers, springs, streams and great waterways flow forth from the treasury of mercy of the Compassionate One, the Lord of Glory and Generosity. They are preserved and dispensed, indeed, in so extraordinary a fashion that it is said “Four rivers flow forth from Paradise.”(*)That is, they transcend by far apparent causes, and flow forth instead from the treasury of a non-material Paradise, from the superabundance of an unseen and inexhaustible source.

For example, the blessed Nile, that turns the sandy land of Egypt into a paradise, flows from the Mountains of the Moon in the south without ever being exhausted, as if it were a small sea. If the water that flowed down the river in six months were gathered together in the form of a mountain and then frozen, it would be larger than those mountains. But the place in the mountains where the water is lodged and stored is less than a sixth of their mass. As for the water that replenishes the river, the rain that enters the reservoir of the river is very sparse in that torrid region and is quickly swallowed up by the thirsty soil; hence it is incapable of maintaining the equilibrium of the river. A tradition has thus grown up that the blessed Nile springs, in miraculous fashion, from an unseen Paradise. This tradition has profound meaning and expresses a beautiful truth.

İşte deniz ve nehirlerin denizler gibi hakikatlerinin ve şehadetlerinin binden birisini gördü. Ve umumu bi’l-icma denizlerin büyüklüğü nisbetinde bir kuvvetle لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّاهُوَ der ve bu şehadete denizler mahlukatı adedince şahitler gösterir diye anladı. Ve denizlerin ve nehirlerin umum şehadetlerini irade ederek ifade etmek manasında Birinci Makam’ın dördüncü mertebesinde لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ ال۟وَاجِبُ ال۟وُجُودِ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ فٖى وَح۟دَتِهٖ جَمٖيعُ ال۟بِحَارِ وَ ال۟اَن۟هَارِ بِجَمٖيعِ مَا فٖيهَا بِشَهَادَةِ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ التَّس۟خٖيرِ وَ ال۟مُحَافَظَةِ وَ ال۟اِدِّخَارِ وَ ال۟اِدَارَةِ ال۟وَاسِعَةِ ال۟مُن۟تَظَمَةِ بِال۟مُشَاهَدَةِ denilmiş.

Then the traveller is summoned, on his meditative journey, by the mountains and the plains. “Read too our pages,” they say. Looking he sees that the universal function and duty of mountains is of such grandeur and wisdom as to stupefy the intelligence.

The mountains emerge from the earth by the command of their Sustainer, thereby palliating the turmoil, anger, and rancour that arise from disturbances within the earth. As the mountains surge upward, the earth begins to breathe; it is delivered from harmful tremors and upheavals, and its tranquillity as it pursues its duty of rotation is no longer disturbed.

In the same way that masts are planted in ships to protect them from turbulence and preserve their balance, so too mountains are set up on the deck of the ship that is the earth, as masts and stores, as is indicated by verses of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition such as these: And the mountains as pegs,(*)And We have cast down anchors,(*)And the mountains He anchored them.(*)

Then, too, there are stored up and preserved in the mountains all kinds of springs, waters, minerals and other materials needed by animate beings, in so wise, skilful, generous and foreseeing a fashion that they prove that they are the storehouses and warehouses and servants of One possessing infinite power, One possessing infinite wisdom.

Deducing from these two examples the other duties and instances of wisdom —as great as mountains— of the mountains and plains, the traveller sees through the general instances of wisdom in them and particularly in regard to the fashion in which all manner of things are stored up in them providentially, the testimony they give and the Divine unity they proclaim declaring “There is no god but He,” —a declaration as powerful and firm as the mountains and vast and expansive as the plains— and he too says, “I believe in God.”

In expression of this meaning, it was said in the Fifth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to the Necessity of Whose Existence point all the mountains and plains together with what is in them and upon them, by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of the storing up, administration, dissemination of seed, preservation, and regulation, a truth providential, dominical, vast, general, well-ordered, and perfect, and to be observed.

Then, while that traveller was travelling in his mind through the mountains and plains, the gate to the arboreal and vegetable realm was opened before him. He was summoned inside: “Come,” they said, “Inspect our realm and read our incriptions.”

Entering, he saw that a splendid and well-adorned assembly for the proclamation of God’s unity and a circle for the mentioning of His Names and the offering of thanks to Him, had been drawn up. He understood for the very appearance of all trees and plants that their different species were proclaiming unanimously, “There is no god but He.” For he perceived three great and general truths indicating and proving that all fruit- giving trees and plants with the tongue of their symmetrical and eloquent leaves, the phrases of their charming and loquacious flowers, the words of their well-ordered and well-spoken fruits, were testifying to God’s glory and bearing witness that “There is no god but He.”

The First:In the same way that in each of the plants and trees a deliberate bounty and generosity is to be seen in most obvious fashion, and a purposive liberality and munificence, so too it is to be seen in the totality of the trees and plants, with the brilliance of sunlight.

The Second: The wise and purposive distinction and differentiation, one that cannot in any way be attributed to chance, the deliberate and merciful adornment and giving of form — all this is to be seen as clearly as daylight in the infinite varieties and species; they show themselves to be the works and embroideries of an All-Wise Maker.

The Third: The opening and unfolding of all the separate members of the hundred thousand species of that infinite realm, each in its own distinct fashion and shape, in the utmost order, equilibrium and beauty, from well-defined, limited, simple and solid seeds and grains, identical to each other or nearly so — their emerging from those seeds in distinct and separate form, with utter equilibrium, vitality and wise purpose without the least error or mistake, is a truth more brilliant than the sun. The witnesses proving this truth are as numerous as the flowers, fruits and leaves that emerge in the spring. So the traveller said, “Praise be to God for the blessing of belief.”

In expression of these truths and the testimony given to them, we said in the Sixth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity points the consensus of all the species of trees and plants that are engaged in glorifying God and speak with the eloquent and well-ordered words of their leaves, their loquacious and comely flowers, their well-ordered and well-spoken fruits, by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of bestowal, bounty, and generosity, done in purposive mercy, and the truth of differentiation, adornment, and decoration, done with will and wisdom. Definite, too, is the indication given by the truth of the opening of all their symmetrical, adorned, distinct, variegated and infinite forms, from seeds and grains that resemble and approximate each other, that are finite and limited.

As this traveller through the cosmos proceeded on his meditative journey, with increased eagerness and a bouquet of gnosis and faith, itself like a spring, gathered from the garden of the spring, there opened before his truth-perceiving intellect, his cognitive reason, the gate to the animal and bird realm. With hundreds of thousands of different voices and various tongues, he was invited to enter.

Entering, he saw that all the animals and birds, in their different species, groups and nations, were proclaiming, silently and aloud, “There is no god but He,” and had thus turned the face of the earth into a vast place of invocation, an expansive assembly for the proclamation of God’s glory. He saw each of them to be like an ode dedicated to God, a word proclaiming His glory, a letter indicating His mercy, each of them describing the Maker and offering Him thanks and encomium. It was as if the senses, powers, members and instruments of those animals and birds were orderly and balanced words, or perfect and disciplined expressions. He observed three great and comprehensive truths indicating, in decisive form, their offering of thanks to the Creator and Provider and their testimony to His unity.

The First: Their being brought into existence with wisdom and purpose and their creation full of art in a fashion that in no way can be attributed to chance, to blind force or inanimate nature; their being created and composed in purposive and knowledgeable manner; their animation and being given life in a way that displays in twenty aspects the manifestation of knowledge, wisdom, and will — all of this is a truth that bears witness to the Necessary Existence of the Eternally Living and Self- Subsistent, His seven attributes and unity, a witness repeated to the number of all animate beings.

The Second: There appears from the distinction made among those infinite beings and from their adornment and decoration in a fashion by which their features are different, their shapes adorned, their proportions measured and symmetrical, and their forms well-ordered — there appears from this a truth so vast and powerful that none other than the One Powerful over all things, the One Knowledgeable of all things, could lay claim to it, this comprehensive act which displays in every respect thousands of wonders and instances of wisdom; it is impossible and precluded that anything other than such a one could lay claim to it.

The Third: The emergence and unfolding of those countless creatures, in their hundreds of thousands of different shapes and forms, each of which is a miracle of wisdom, their emergence from eggs and drops of water called sperm that are identical with each other or closely resemble each other, and are limited and finite in number, all this in the most orderly, symmetrical and unfailing fashion, is so brilliant a truth as to be illumined with proofs and evidences as numerous as the animals themselves.

By the consensus of these three truths, all the species of animals are engaged together in testifying that “There is no god but He.” It is as if the whole earth, like a great man, were saying “There is no god but He” in a manner befitting its vastness, and conveying its testimony to the dwellers of the heaven. The traveller saw this and understood it perfectly. In expression of these truths, we said in the Seventh Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the consensus of all animals and birds, that praise God and bear witness to Him with the words of their senses, their faculties and powers, words well-balanced, ordered and eloquent; with the words of their limbs and members, words perfect and persuasive; by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of bringing into being, making, and creating, according to will, the truth of distinction and decoration according to purpose, and the truth of proportioning and forming according to wisdom. Definite too is the indication given by the truth of the opening of all of their orderly, distinct, variegated and infinite forms, out of identical or similar eggs and drops of sperm, that are finite and limited.

That meditative voyager, in order to advance farther in the infinite degrees and countless luminous stages of knowledge of God, then wished to enter the world of men, the realm of humanity. Humanity, headed by the prophets, invited him, and he accepted the invitation.

Looking first at the stopping-place of the past, he saw that all of the prophets (Peace and blessings be upon him), the most luminous and perfect of human kind, were reciting in chorus, “No god but He,” and making remembrance of God. With the power of their brilliant, well-attested and innumerable miracles, they were proclaiming God’s unity, and in order to advance man from the animal state to angelic degree, they were instructing men and summoning them to belief in God. Kneeling down in that school of light, he too paid heed to the lesson.

He saw that in the hand of each of those teachers, the most exalted and renowned of all celebrated human beings, there were numerous miracles, bestowed on them by the Creator of All Being as a sign confirming their mission. Further, a large group of men, a whole community, had confirmed their claims and come to belief at their hands; a truth assented to and confirmed by these hundreds of thousands of serious and veracious individuals, unanimously and in full agreement, was bound to be firm and definitive. He understood, too, that the people of misguidance, in denying a truth attested and affirmed by so many veracious witnesses, were committing a most grievous error, indeed crime, and were therefore deserving of a most grievous punishment. He recognized, by contrast, those who assented to the truth and believed in it, as being the most true and righteous, and a further degree of the sanctity of belief became apparent to him.

Yes, the infinite miracles bestowed by God on the prophets (Peace be upon them) each one being like a confirmation of their mission; the heavenly blows dealt to their opponents, each being like a proof of their truthfulness; their individual perfections, each one being like an indication of their righteousness; their veracious teachings; the strength of their faith, a witness to their honesty; their supreme seriousness and readiness to self-sacrifice; the sacred books and pages held by their hands; their countless pupils who through following their paths attain truth, perfection and light, thus proving again the truthfulness of the teachings; the unanimous agreement of the prophets —those most earnest warners— and their followers in all positive matters; their concord, mutual support and affinity — all of this constitutes so powerful a proof that no power on earth can confront it, and no doubt or hesitation can survive it.

Our traveller understood further that inclusion of belief in all the prophets (Peace be upon them) among the pillars of belief, represents another great source of strength. Thus he derived great benefit of faith from their lessons, in expression of which we said in the Eighth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity points the unanimity of all the prophets, through the power of their luminous miracles, that both affirm and are affirmed.

That questing traveller, having derived a lofty taste of truth from the power of belief, found himself invited, while coming from the assembly of the prophets (Peace be upon them) to the classroom of those profound, original, exacting scholars who affirm the claims of the prophets (Peace be upon them) with the most decisive and powerful proofs and who are known as the purified and most veracious ones.

Entering their classroom, he saw thousands of geniuses and hundreds of thousands of exact and exalted scholars proving all the affirmative matters connected with faith, headed by the necessity of God’s existence and His unity, with such profound demonstrations as to leave not the least room for doubt. Indeed, the fact that they are agreed in the principles and pillars of belief, despite their differences in capacity and outlook, and that each of them relies on a firm and certitudinous proof, is in itself such evidence that it can be doubted only if it is possible for a similar number of intelligent and perspicuous men to arrive at a single result. Otherwise the only way for the denier to oppose them is to display his ignorance —his utter ignorance— and his obstinacy with respect to negative matters that admit neither of denial nor affirmation. He will in effect be closing his eyes but the one who closes his eyes is able to turn day into night only for himself.

The traveller learned that the lights emitted in this vast and magnificent classroom by these respected and profound scholars had been illumining half of the globe for more than a thousand years. He found in it moral and spiritual force that the combined strength of all the people of denial would be unable to shake or destroy.

In brief allusion to the lesson learned by the traveller in this classroom we said in the Ninth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the agreement of all of the purified scholars, with the power of their resplendent, certain and unanimous proofs.

Our contemplative traveller came forth from the classroom, ardently desiring to see the lights that are to be observed in the continuous strengthening and development of faith, and in advancing from the degree of the knowledge of certainty to that of the vision of certainty. He then found himself summoned by thousands or millions of spiritual guides who were striving toward the truth and attaining the vision of certainty in the shade of the highway of Muhammad (PBUH) and the ascension of Muhammad (PBUH). This they were doing in a meeting-place, a hospice, a place of remembrance and preceptorship, that was abundantly luminous and vast as a plain, being formed from the merging of countless small hospices and convents.

Upon entering, he found that those spiritual guides —people of unveiling and wondrous deeds— were unanimously proclaiming, “No god but He,” on the basis of their witnessing and unveiling of the Unseen and the wondrous deeds they had been enabled to perform; they were proclaiming the necessary existence and unity of God. The traveller observed how manifest and clear must be a truth to which unanimously subscribe these sacred geniuses and luminous gnostics. For, like the sun is known through the seven colours in its light, the saints’ luminous colours, their light-filled hues, their true paths and right ways and veracious courses are manifested from the light of the Pre-Eternal Sun through seventy colours, indeed, through colours to the number of the Divine Names, and are all different. He saw that the unanimity of the prophets and the agreement of the purified scholars and accord of the saints forms a supreme consensus, more brilliant than the daylight that demonstrates the existence of the sun.

İşte bu misafirin tekyeden aldığı feyze kısa bir işaret olarak Birinci Makam’ın onuncu mertebesinde لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ فٖى وَح۟دَتِهٖ اِج۟مَاعُ ال۟اَو۟لِيَاءِ بِكَش۟فِيَّاتِهِم۟ وَ كَرَامَاتِهِمُ الظَّاهِرَةِ ال۟مُحَقَّقَةِ ال۟مُصَدَّقَةِ denilmiş.

Now our traveller through the world, aware that the most important and greatest of all human perfections, indeed the very source and origin of all such perfections, is the love of God that arises from belief in God and the knowledge of God, wished with all of his powers, outer and inner, to advance still farther in the strengthening of his faith and the development of his knowledge. He therefore raised his head and gazing at the heavens said to himself:

“The most precious thing in the universe is life; all things are made subordinate to life. The most precious of all living beings is the animate, and the most precious of the animate is the conscious. Each century and each year, the globe is engaged in emptying and refilling itself, in order to augment this most precious substance. It follows, then, without doubt, that the magnificent and ornate heavens must have appropriate people and inhabitants, possessing life, spirit and consciousness, for events relating to seeing and speaking with the angels —such as the appearance of Gabriel (Peace be upon him) in the presence of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) and in the view of the Companions— have been transmitted and related from the most ancient times. Would, then, that I could converse with the inhabitants of the heavens, and learn their thoughts on this matter. For their words concerning the Creator of the cosmos are the most important.”As he was thus thinking to himself, he suddenly heard a heavenly voice:

“If you wish to meet us and hearken to our lesson, then know that before all others we have believed in the articles of faith brought by means of us to the prophets, headed by the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who brought the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition.“Then too all of the pure spirits from among us that have appeared before men have, unanimously and without exception, born witness to the necessary existence, the unity, and the sacred attributes of the Creator of this cosmos, and proclaimed this with one accord. The affinity and mutual correspondence of these countless proclamations is a guide for you as bright as the sun.” Thus the traveller’s light of faith shone, and rose from the earth to the heavens.

In brief allusion to the lesson learned by the traveller from the angels, we said in the Eleventh Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the unanimity of the angels that appear to human gaze, and who speak to the elect among men, with their mutually corresponding and conforming messages.

Then, that ardent and inquisitive traveller, having learned from the tongues of various realms of creation in the Manifest Realm in their material and corporeal aspects, and from the utterance of their modes of being, desired to study and journey through the World of the Unseen and the Intermediate Realm, and thus to investigate reality. There opened to him the gate of upright and luminous intellects, of sound and illumined hearts, that are like the seed of man, who is the fruit of the universe, and despite their slight girth can expand virtually to embrace the whole of the cosmos.

He looked and saw a series of human isthmuses linking the realm of the Unseen with that of the Manifest, and the contacts between those two realms and the interchanges between them insofar as they affect man, taking place at those points. Addressing his intellect and his heart he said: “Come, the path leading to truth from these counterparts of yours is shorter. We should benefit by studying their qualities, natures and colours concerning faith that we find here, not by listening to the lessons given by the tongues of disposition as was previously the case.”

Beginning his study, he saw that the belief and firm conviction concerning the Divine unity that all luminous intellects possessed, despite their varying capacities and differing, even opposing, methods and outlooks, was the same, and that their steadfast and confident certainty and assurance was one. They had, therefore, to be relying on a single, unchanging truth; their roots were sunk in a profound truth and could not be plucked out. Their unanimity concerning faith, the necessary existence and unity of God, was an unbreakable and luminous chain, a brightly lit window opening onto the world of the truth.

He saw also that the unanimous, assured and sublime unveilings and witnessings of the pillars of belief enjoyed by all those sound and luminous intellects, whose methods were various and outlooks divergent, corresponded to and agreed with each other on the matter of the Divine unity.

All those luminous hearts, turned and joined to the truth and manifesting it, each a small throne of dominical knowledge, a comprehensive mirror of God’s Eternal Besoughtedness, were like so many windows opened onto the Sun of the Truth. Taken together, they were like a supreme mirror, like an ocean reflecting the sun.Their agreement and unanimity concerning the necessary existence and unity of God was an unfailing and reliable most perfect guide, most elevated preceptor.

For it is in no way possible or conceivable that a supposition other than the truth, an untrue thought, a false attribute, should so consistently and decisively be able to deceive simultaneously so many sharp eyes, or to induce illusion in them. Not even the foolish Sophists, who deny the cosmos, would agree with the corrupt and dissipated intellect that held such a thing possible. All of this our traveller understood, and he said, together with his own intellect and heart, “I have believed in God.”

In brief allusion to the benefit derived from upright intellects and luminous hearts by our traveller, for knowledge of belief, we said in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Degrees of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the consensus of all upright intellects, illumined with congruent beliefs and corresponding convictions and certainties, despite differences in capacity and outlook. There also points to His Necessary Existence in Unity the agreement of all sound, luminous hearts, with their mutually corresponding unveilings and their congruent witnessings, despite differences in method and manner.

Then that traveller looking closely at the World of the Unseen, and voyaging in it with his intellect and his heart, knocked inquisitively on the door of that world, thinking to himself, “What does this world have to say?” The following occurred to him: it is to be clearly understood that behind the veil of the Unseen is one who wants to make himself known through all these numerous finely adorned artefacts full of art in this corporeal Manifest World, and to make himself loved through these infinite sweet and decorated bounties, and to make known his hidden perfections through these innumerable miraculous and skilful works of art, and who does this by act rather than speech and by making himself known by the tongue of disposition. Since this is so, of a certainty he will speak and make himself known and loved through speech and utterance just as he does through deed and state. In which case, from his manifestations we must know him in respect to the World of the Unseen. Whereupon he entered that world with his heart and saw the following with the eye of his intellect:

The truth of revelations prevails at all instants over all parts of the World of the Unseen, with a most powerful manifestation. There comes with the truths of revelation and inspiration proceeding from the One All-Knowing of the Unseen, a testimony to His existence and unity far stronger than testimony of the universe and created beings. He does not leave Himself, His existence and His unity, only to the testimony of His creatures. Rather, He speaks with a pre-eternal Speech consonant with His own being. The Speech of the One Who is all-present and all-seeing everywhere with His Knowledge and Power is also endless, and just as the meaning of His Speech makes Him known, so does His discourse make Himself known together with His attributes.

The traveller recognized that the truth, reality, and existence of revelation has been made plain to the point of being self-evident by the consensus of one hundred thousand prophets (Peace be upon them), by the agreement among their proclamations concerning the manifestion of Divine revelation; by the evidences and miracles contained in the sacred books and heavenly pages, which are the guides and exemplars of the overwhelming majority of humanity, confirmed and assented to by them, and are the visible fruits of revelation. He understood further that the truth of revelation proclaims five sacred truths.

The First: To speak in accordance with men’s intellects and understandings, known as ‘Divine condescension to the minds of men,’ is a form of Divine descent. It is a requirement of God’s dominicality that He endows all of his conscious creatures with speech, understands their speech, and then participates in it with His own speech.

The Second: The One Who, in order to make Himself known, fills the cosmos with His miraculous creations and endows them with tongues speaking of His perfections, will necessarily make Himself known with His own words also.

The Third: It is a function of His being Creator to respond in words to the supplications and offerings of thanks that are made by the most select, the most needy, the most delicate and the most ardent among His beings — true men.

The Fourth: The attribute of Speech, an essential concomitant and luminous manifestation of both Knowledge and Life, will necessarily be found in a comprehensive and eternal form in the being Whose Knowledge is comprehensive and Whose Life is eternal.

The Fifth: It is a consequence of Divinity that the Being Who endows men with impotence and desire, poverty and need, anxiety for the future, love and worship, should communicate His own existence, by way of His speech, to His most loved and lovable, His most anxious and needy creatures, who are most desirous of finding their Lord and Master.

The evidences for the existence in unity of the Necessary Existent offered in unanimity by universal and heavenly revelations, which contain the truths of Divine descent, dominical self-proclamation, compassionate response, Divine conversation, and eternal self-communication, constitute a proof more powerful than the testimony for the existence of the sun brought by the rays of sunlight.

Our traveller understood this then looked in the direction of inspiration and saw that veracious inspiration indeed resembles revelation in some respects and is a mode of dominical speech. There are, however, two differences:

THE FIRST: Revelation, which is much higher than inspiration, generally comes by the medium of the angels, whereas inspiration generally comes directly.

So too a king has two modes of speech and command.

The first consists of his sending to a governor a lieutenant equipped with all the pomp of monarchy and the splendour of sovereignty. Sometimes, in order to demonstrate the splendour of his sovereignty and the importance of his command, he may meet with the intermediary, and then the decree will be issued.

The second consists of his speaking privately in his own person, not with the title of monarch or in the name of kingship, concerning some private matter, some petty affair, using for this purpose a trusted servant, some ordinary subject, or his private telephone.

In the same way the Pre-Eternal Monarch may either, in the name of the Sustainer of All the Worlds, and with the title of Creator of the Universe, speak with revelation or the comprehensive inspiration that performs the function of revelation, or He may speak in a different and private fashion, as the Sustainer and Creator of all animate beings, from behind the veil, in a way suited to the recipient.

THE SECOND DIFFERENCE: Revelation is without shadow, pure, and reserved for the elect. Inspiration, by contrast, has shadow, colours intermingle with it, and it is general. There are numerous different kinds of inspiration, such as the inspiration of angels, the inspiration of men, and the inspiration of animals; inspiration thus forms a field for the multiplication of God’s words, that are as numeous as the drops in the ocean.

Our traveller understood that this matter is, indeed, a kind of commentary on the verse, Were the sea to become ink for the words of my Sustainer, verily the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Sustainer.(*)

Then he looked at the nature, the wisdom, and the testimony of inspiration and saw that its nature, wisdom and result were composed of four lights.

The first: it is the result of God’s Lovingness and Mercifulness that He makes himself loved through word, presence and discourse, in the same way that He makes Himself loved to His creatures through His deeds.

The second: it is a requirement of His Compassionateness that just as He answers His servants’ prayers in deed, He should also answer them in word, from behind veils.

The third: it is a concomitant of dominicality that just as He responds in deed to the cries for help, supplications, and pleadings of those of His creatures who are afflicted with grievous misfortunes and hardships, so too He should hasten to their help with words of inspiration, which are like a form of speech.

The fourth: God makes His existence, presence and protection perceptible in deed to His most weak and indigent, His most poor and needy, conscious creatures, that stand in great need of finding their Master, Protector, Guardian, and Disposer. It is a necessary and essential consequence of His Divine solicitousness and His dominical compassion that He should also communicate His presence and existence by speech, from behind the veil of veracious inspiration —a mode of dominical discourse— to individuals, in a manner peculiar to them and their capacities, through the telephone of their hearts.

He then looked to the testimony of inspiration and saw that if the sun, for example, had consciousness and life, and if the seven colours of sunlight were the seven attributes, in that respect it would have a form of speech through the rays and manifestations found in its light. And in this situation both its similitudes and reflections would be present in all transparent objects, and it would speak with all mirrors and shining objects and fragments of glass and bubbles and droplets of water, indeed with all transparent particles, in accordance with the capacity of each; it would respond to the needs of each, and all these would testify to the sun’s existence; and no task would form an obstacle to any other task, and no speaking obstruct any other speaking. This is self-evident.

In the same way, the Speech of the Glorious Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post- Eternity, the Beauteous and Exalted Creator of All Beings, Who may be described as the Pre-Eternal Sun, manifests itself to all things,in general and comprehensive fashion, in a manner appropriate to their capacity, as do also His Knowledge and Power. No request interferes with another, no task prevents the fulfilment of another, and no address becomes confused with another. All of this our traveller understood as self-evident. He knew that all of those manifestations, those discourses, those inspirations, separately and together, evidenced and bore witness unanimously to the presence, the necessary existence, the unity and the oneness of that Pre-Eternal Sun with a knowlege of certainty that approached a vision of certainty.

In brief allusion to the lesson in knowledge of God from the World of the Unseen gained by our inquisitive traveller, we said in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Degrees of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the One, the Single, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the consensus of all true revelations, containing Divine descent, glorious discourse, dominical self-revelation, compassionate response to the invocations of men, and eternal indications of His existence to his creatures. There points also to His Necessary Existence in Unity the agreement of all veracious inspirations, containing expressions of God’s love, compassionate responses to the prayers of God’s creatures, dominical responses to the appeals of His servants for aid, and glorious intimations of His existence to His creatures.

Then that traveller through the world addressed his own intellect saying: “Since I am seeking my Master and Creator by means of the creatures of the cosmos, I ought before all else to visit the most celebrated of all these creatures, the greatest and most accomplished commander among them, according to the testimony even of his enemies, the most renowned ruler, the most exalted in speech and the most brilliant an intellect, who has illuminated fourteen centuries with his excellence and with his Qur’an, Muhammad the Arabian Prophet (May God’s peace and blessings be upon him).”

In order thus to visit him and seek from him the answer to his quest, he entered the blessed age of the Prophet in his mind, and saw that age to be one of true felicity, thanks to that being. For through the light he had brought, he had turned the most primitive and illiterate of peoples into the masters and teachers of the world.

He said too to his own intellect, “Before asking him concerning our Creator, we should first learn that value of this extraordinary being, the veracity of his words and the truthfulness of his warnings.” Thus he began investigating, and of the numerous conclusive proofs that he found we will briefly indicate here only nine of the most general ones.

THE FIRST: All excellent qualities and characteristics were to be found in that extraordinary being, according to the testimony even of his enemies. Hundreds of miracles were made manifest at his hands, according to explicit Qur’anic verses or traditions enjoying the status of tawatur.(*)Examples of these miracles are his splitting of the moon, And the moon split,(*)with a single indication of his finger; his casting of a handful of dust into the eyes of his enemies, causing them to flee, It was not your act when you threw, but God’s,(*)and his giving his thirsting army to drink from the water that flowed forth from his five fingers like the Spring of Kawthar. Since some of those miracles, numbering more than three hundred, have been set forth with decisive proofs in the remarkable and wondrous work known as The Miracles of Muhammad (The Nineteenth Letter), we leave discussion of the miracles to that work, and permit the traveller to continue speaking:

“A being who in addition to noble characteristics and perfections has all these luminous miracles to demonstrate, must certainly be the most truthful in speech of all men. It is inconceivable that he would stoop to trickery, lies and error, the deeds of the vile.”

THE SECOND: He holds in his hand a decree from the lord of the universe, a decree accepted and affirmed in each century by more than three hundred million people. This decree, the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, is wondrous in seven different ways. The fact that the Qur’an has forty different aspects of miraculousness and that it is the word of the Creator of all beings has been set forth in detail with strong proofs in the Twenty-Fifth Word, The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, a celebrated treatise that is like the sun of the Risale-i Nur. We therefore leave such matters to that work and listen to the traveller as he says,

“There can never be any possibility of lying on the part of the being who is the conveyor and proclaimer of this decree, for that would be a violation of the decree and treachery toward the One Who issued it.”

THE THIRD: Such a Sacred Law, an Islam, a code of worship, a cause, a summons, and a faith did that being bring forth that the like of them does not exist, nor could it exist. Nor does a more perfect form of them exist, nor could it exist.

For the Law appearing with that unlettered being has no rival in its administration of one fifth of humanity for fourteen centuries, in a just and precise manner through its numerous injuctions.

Moreover the Islam that emerged from the deeds, sayings, and inward states of that unlettered being has no peer, nor can it have, for in each century it has been for three hundred million men a guide and a refuge, the teacher and educator of their intellects and the illuminator and purifier of their hearts, the cause for the refinement and training of their souls, and the source of progress and advancement of their spirits.

The Prophet is similarly unparalleled in the way in which he was the foremost in practising all the forms of worship found in his religion, and the first in piety and the fear of God; in his observing the duties of worship fully and with attention to their profoundest dimensions, even while engaged in constant struggle and activity; in his practice of worship combining in perfect fashion the beginning and end of worship and servitude to God without imitation of anyone.

With the Jawshan al-Kabir, from among his thousands of supplicatory prayers and invocations, he describes his Sustainer with such a degree of gnosis that all the gnostics and saints who have come after him have been unable, with their joint efforts, to attain a similar degree of gnosis and accurate description. This shows that in prayer too he is without peer. Whoever looks at the section at the beginning of the Treatise On Supplicatory Prayer which sets forth some part of the meaning of one of the ninety-nine sections of the Jawshan al-Kabir will say that the Jawshan too has no peer.

In his conveying of the message and his summoning men to the truth, he displayed such steadfastness, firmness and courage that although great states and religions, and even his own people, tribe and uncle opposed him in the most hostile fashion, he exhibited not the slightest trace of hesitation anxiety or fear. The fact that he successfully challenged the whole world and made Islam the master of the world likewise proves that there is not and cannot be anyone like him in his conveying of the message and summons.

In his faith, he had so extraordinary a strength, so marvellous a certainty, so miraculous a breadth, and so exalted a conviction, illumining the whole world, that none of the ideas and beliefs then dominating the world, and none of the philosophies of the sages and teachings of the religious leaders, was able, despite extreme hostility and denial, to induce in his certainty, conviction, trust and assurance, the slightest doubt, hesitation, weakness or anxiety. Moreover, the saintly of all ages, headed by the Companions, the foremost in the degrees of belief, have all drawn on his fountain of belief and regarded him as representing the highest degree of faith. This proves that his faith too is matchless.

Our traveller therefore concluded, and affirmed with his intellect, that lying and duplicity have no place in the one who has brought such a unique sacred law, such an unparalleled Islam, such a wondrous devotion to worship, such an extra-ordinary excellence in supplicatory prayer, such a universally acclaimed summons to the truth and such a miraculous faith.

THE FOURTH: In the same way that the consensus of the prophets is a strong proof for the existence and unity of God, so too it is a firm testimony to the truthfulness and messengerhood of this being. For all the sacred attributes, miracles and functions that indicate the truthfulness and messengerhood of the prophets (Peace be upon them) existed in full measure in that being according to the testimony of history.

The prophets have verbally predicted the coming of that being and given good tidings thereof in the Torah, the Gospels, the Psalms, and the pages; more than twenty of the most conclusive examples of these glad tidings, drawn from the scriptures, have been set forth and proven in the Nineteenth Letter. Similarly, through all the deeds and miracles associated with their prophethood they have affirmed and, as it were, put their signature to the mission of that being which is the foremost and most perfect in the tasks and functions of prophethood. Just as through verbal consensus they indicate the Divine unity, through the unanimity of their deeds they bear witness to the truthfulness of that being. This too was understood by our traveller.

THE FIFTH: Similarly, the thousands of saints who have attained truth, reality, perfection, wondrous deeds, unveiling and witnessing through the instruction of this being and following him, bear unanimous witness not only to the Divine unity but also to the truthfulness and messengerhood of this being. Again, the fact that they witness, through the light of sainthood, some of the truths he proclaimed concerning the World of the Unseen, and that they believe in and affirm all of those truths through the light of belief, either with knowledge of certainty, or with the vision of certainty, or with absolute certainty. He saw that this too demonstates like the sun the degree of truthfulness and rectitude of that great being, their master.

THE SIXTH: The millions of purified, sincere, and punctilious scholars and faithful sages, who have reached the highest station of learning through the teaching and instruction contained in the sacred truths brought by that being, despite his unlettered nature, the exalted sciences he invented and Divine knowledge he discovered — they not only prove and affirm, unanimously and with the strongest proofs, the Divine unity which is the foundation of his mission, but also bear unanimous witness to the truthfulness of this supreme teacher and great master, and to the veracity of his words. This is a proof as clear as daylight. The Risale-i Nur too with its one hundred parts is but a single proof of his truthfulness.

THE SEVENTH: The Family and Companions of the Prophet —who with their insight, knowledge, and spiritual accomplishment are the most renowned, the most respected, the most celebrated, the most pious and the most keensighted of men after the prophets— examined and scrutinized, with the utmost attention, seriousness and exactitude, all the states, thoughts and conditions of this being, whether hidden or open. They came to the unanimous conclusion that he was the most truthful, exalted, and honest being in the world, and this, their unshakeable affirmation and firm belief, is a proof like the daylight attesting the reality of the sun.

THE EIGHTH: The cosmos indicates its Maker, Inscriber, and Designer, Who creates, administers, and arranges it, and through determining its measure and form and regulating it, has disposal over it as though it was a palace, a book, an exhibition, a spectacle. And so too it indicates that it requires and necessitates an elevated herald, a truthful unveiler, a learned master, and a truthful teacher who will know and make known the Divine purposes in the universe’s creation, teach the dominical instances of wisdom in its changes and transformations, give instruction in the results of its dutiful motions, proclaim its essential value and the perfections of the beings within it, and express the meanings of that mighty book; it indicates that he is certain to exist. Thus, the traveller knew that it testified to the truthfulness of this being, who performed these functions better than anyone, and to his being a most elevated and loyal official of the universe’s Creator.

THE NINTH: There is behind the veil One Who wishes to demonstrate with these ingenious and wise artefacts the perfection of His talent and art; to make Himself known and loved by means of these countless adorned and decorated creations; to evoke praise and thanks through the unnumbered pleasurable and valuable bounties that he bestows; to cause men to worship Him with gratitude and appreciation in the face of His dominicality, through His solicitous and protective sustenance of life, and His provision of nurture and bounty in such manner as to satisfy the most delicate of tastes and appetites; to manifest His Divinity through the change of seasons, the alternation of night and day, and through all His magnificent and majestic deeds, all His awe-inspiring and wise acts and creativity, and thereby to cause men to believe in his Divinity, in submission, humility and obedience; and to demonstrate His justice and truthful ness by at all times protecting virtue and the virtuous and destroying evil and the evil, by annihilating with blows from heaven the oppressor and the liar.

There will of a certainty be at the side of this Unseen Being His most beloved creature and most devoted bondsman, who, serving the purposes that have just been mentioned, discovers and unravels the talisman and riddle of the creation of the universe, who acts always in the name of that Creator, who seeks aid and success from Him, and who receives them from Him — Muhammad of Quraysh (Peace and blessings be upon him!) The traveller further said, addressing his own intellect: “Since these nine truths bear witness to the truthfulness of this being, he must be the source of glory of mankind and the source of honour for the world.

If we therefore call him the Pride of the World and Glory of the Sons of Adam, it will be fitting. The fact that the awesome sovereignty of that decree of the Compassionate One, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition that he holds in his hand, has conquered half the world, together with his individual perfections and exalted virtues, shows that he is the most important personage in the world. The most important word concerning our Creator is that which he utters.”

Now see: the foundation of the summons of this extraordinary being and the aim of all his life, based on the strength furnished by his hundreds of decisive and evident and manifest miracles, and the thousands of exalted, fundamental truths contained in his religion, was to prove and bear witness to the existence of the Necessary Existent, His Unity, attributes and Names, to affirm, proclaim and announce Him.

He is therefore like a sun in the cosmos, the most brilliant proof of our Creator, this being whom we call the Beloved of God. There are three forms of great and infallible consensus each of which affirms, confirms, and puts its signature to the witness he bears.

The First: the unanimous affirmation made by that luminous assembly known and celebrated throughout the world as the Family of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) including thousands of poles and supreme saints of penetrating gaze and ability to perceive the Unseen, such as Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him), who said, “Were the veil to be lifted, my certainty would not increase,” and ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, the Ghawth al-A‘zam (May his mystery be sanctified), who saw the Supreme Throne and the awesome form of Israfil while yet on the earth.

The Second: the confirmation made with a strong faith that permitted men to sacrifice their lives and their property, their fathers and tribes, by the renowned assembly known as the Companions, who found themselves among a primitive people and in an unlettered environment, devoid of all social life and political thought, without any scripture and lost in the darkness of a period between prophets; and who in a very brief time came to be the masters, guides, and just rulers of the most civilized and politically and socially advanced peoples and states, and to rule the world from east to west in universally approved fashion.

The Third: the confirmation provided with unanimous and certain knowledge by that lofty group of punctilious and profound scholars of whom in each age thousands spring forth, who advance in wondrous fashion in every science and work in different fields.

Thus, the testimony brought by this being to the Divine unity is not particular and individual, but general and universal and unshakeable. If all the demons that exist were to unite, they could not challenge it. Such was the conclusion reached by the traveller.

In reference to the lesson learned in the School of Light by that traveller from the world, that wayfarer in life, when he visited in his mind the blessed age of the Prophet, we said at the end of the Sixteenth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the One, the Unique, the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity is indicated by the Pride of the World and the Glory of the Sons of Adam, through the majesty of the sovereignty of his Qur’an, the splendour of the expanse of his religion, the multiplicity of his perfections, and the exaltedness of his characterisitics, as confirmed even by the testimony of his enemies. He bears witness and brings proof through the strength of his hundreds of manifest and evident miracles, that both testify to truth and are themselves the object of true testimony; and through the strength of the thousands of luminous and conclusive truths contained in his religion, according to the consensus of all the possessors of light, the agreement of his illumined Companions, and the unanimity of the scholars of his community, the possessors of proofs and luminous insight.

The tireless and insatiable traveller, who knew the aim of life in this world and the essence of life to be faith, addressed his own heart and said: “Let us examine the book known as the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, which is said to be the word and utterance of the Being Whom we are seeking, the most famous, the most brilliant and wisest book in the world, that issues a challenge in every age to whoever refuses to submit to it. Let us see what it says. But first, we must establish that this book is from our Creator,” and he began to search.

Since the traveller lived in the present age, he looked first at the Risale-i Nur, flashes from the miraculousness of the Qur’an; he saw its one hundred and thirty parts to consist of luminous points drawn from that Book of Discernment, or well-founded explanations of its contents. Even though the Risale-i Nur is valiantly struggling to diffuse the truths of the Qur’an in all directions, in this obstinate and atheistic age, no one can defeat it, which proves that its master, its source, its authority and its sun, is the Qur’an, heavenly not human speech.

Among the hundreds of proofs in the different parts of the Risale-i Nur, the single proof contained in the Twenty-Fifth Word and the end of the Nineteenth Letter, establishes forty aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness in such a way that whoever sees it, far from uttering any criticism or objection, admires its arguments, and utters appreciative praise.

The traveller left it to the Risale-i Nur to prove that the Qur’an is miraculous and the true Word of God, turning only to a brief indication of a few points showing its greatness.

First Point: Just as the Qur’an, with all its miracles and truths indicating its veracity is a miracle of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) so too, Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) with all his miracles, proofs of prophethood and perfections of knowledge, is a miracle of the Qur’an and a decisive proof of the Qur’an’s being the Word of God.

Second Point: The Qur’an, in this world, brought about in so luminous, felicitous and truthful a fashion, a revolution in the social life of man, as well as in the souls, hearts, spirits, and intellects of men, in their individual, social, and political lives, and having caused this revolution perpetuated it in such a fashion, that for fourteen centuries at every moment its six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six verses have been read by the tongues of more than a hundred million men, training them, refining their souls and purifying their hearts. To spirits, it has been a means of development and advancement; to intellects, an orientation and light; to life, it has been life itself and felicity. Such a book is of a certainty unparalleled; it is a wonder, a marvel, and a miracle.

Third Point: The Qur’an, from that age down to the present, has demonstrated such eloquence that it caused the value attached to the odes known as “Seven Hanging Poems” that were written in gold on the walls of the Ka‘ba to descend to such a point that the daughter of Labid, when taking down her father’s poem from the Ka‘ba, said, “Compared with the verses of the Qur’an, this no longer has any value.”

A bedouin poet heard this verse being recited, Therefore expound openly what you are commanded,(*)and immediately prostrated. They asked him: “Have you become a Muslim?” “No,” he replied, “I was prostrating before the eloquence of this verse.”

Thousands of scholars and litterateurs, like geniuses of the science of rhetoric such as ‘Abd al-Qahir Jurjani, Sakkaki, and Zamakhshari, have unanimously decided that the eloquence of the Qur’an is beyond human capacity and is unattainable.

The Qur’an has also from that time forward invited to the field of combat all arrogant and egoistic litterateurs and rhetoricians, and said to them in a manner calculated to break their arrogance: “Come, produce a single sura like it, or else accept perdition and humiliation in this world and the hereafter.” Despite this challenge, the obstinate rhetoricians of that age abandoned the short path of producing a single sura like the Qur’an, and instead chose the long path of casting their persons and property into danger. This proves that the short path cannot be taken.

Millions of Arabic books are in circulation, some written by friends of the Qur’an in order to resemble and imitate it, others written by its enemies in order to confront and criticize it. Not one of them has been able to attain the level of the Qur’an. Should a common man even listen to them, he is sure to say: “The Qur’an does not resemble these other books, nor is it in the same class as they. It must be either below them or above them.” No one —no unbeliever or fool— in the world can say that it is below them. Hence its degree of eloquence is above all of them.

Once a man read the verse, All that is in the heavens and the earth extols and glorifies God.(*)He said: “I cannot see any miraculous eloquence in this verse.” He was told: “Go back to that age like the traveller, and listen to the verse as recited there.”

Imagining himself to be there before the revelation of the Qur’an, he saw that all the beings in the world were living in an unstable, transient world in empty, infinite and unbounded space, in confusion and darkness, lifeless and without consciousness and purpose.

Suddenly he heard this verse proclaimed by the tongue of the Qur’an and the verse removed a veil from in front of the universe and illumined the face of the globe; this pre-eternal speech, this eternal decree, gave instruction to all conscious beings, drawn up in the ranks of succeeding centuries, in such fashion that the cosmos became like a vast mosque. All of creation headed by the heavens and the earth, was engaged in vital remembrance of God and proclamation of His glory, was joyously and contentedly fulfilling its function. All of this our traveller observed. Thus tasting the degree of the eloquence of the Qur’an, and comparing the other verses to it by analogy, he understood one of the many thousands of wise reasons for the conquest of half the globe and a fifth of humanity by the eloquent murmuring of the Qur’an, for the uninterrupted continuance of its respected and magnificent monarchy for fourteen centuries.

Fourth Point: The Qur’an has demonstrated such a veracious sweetness that whereas the repetition of even the sweetest thing induces disgust,it has from earliest times been accepted by everyone and even become proverbial that repeated recitation of the Qur’an, far from inducing disgust and weariness in men of sound heart and pure taste, on the contrary increases its sweetness.

The Qur’an demonstrates, moreover, such a freshness, youth and originality, that even though it has lived for fourteen centuries and passed through many hands, it retains its freshness as if it had only just been revealed. Every century sees the Qur’an enjoying a new youth, as if it were addressing that century in particular. Similarly, scholars of every branch of learning, even though they keep the Qur’an constantly at their side in order to benefit from it, and perpetually follow its method of exposition, see that the Qur’an maintains the originality of its style and manner of explanation.

Fifth Point: One wing of the Qur’an is in the past, and one is in the future, and like its root and one wing are the agreed truths of the former prophets, and it confirms and corroborates them, and they too confirm it with the tongue of unanimity, so too all the true Sufi paths and ways of sainthood whose fruits like the saints and purified scholars, who receive life from the Qur’an, show through their vital spiritual progress that their blessed tree is living, effulgent, and the means to truth, and who grow and live under the protection of its second wing, testify that the Qur’an is pure truth and the assembly of truths and in its comprehensiveness, a matchless wonder.

Sixth Point: The Qur’an’s truthfulness and veracity show that its six aspects are luminous. Indeed, the pillars of argument and proof beneath it; the flashes of the stamp of miraculousness above it; the gifts of happiness in this world and the next before it, its goal; the truths of heavenly revelation, the point of support behind it; the assent and evidence of innumerable upright minds to its right; and the true tranquillity, sincere attraction, and submission of sound hearts and clean consciences on its left all prove that the Qur’an is a wondrous, firm, unassailable citadel of both the heavens and the earth.

So too from these six levels, the Disposer of the universe has set His seal on its being sheer truth and right, and not being man’s word, and its containing no error — the Disposer,

Who has made it His practice to always exhibit beauty in the universe, protect good and right, and eliminate imposters and liars, has confirmed and set His seal on the Qur’an by giving it the most acceptable, highest, and most dominant place of respect and degree of success in the world.

And so too the one who is the source of Islam and interpreter of the Qur’an — hisbelieving in it and holding it in greater respect than everyone else, and being in a sleep- like state when it was revealed,(*)and other words and speeches not resembling or coming near it, and that Interpreter’s describing without hesistation and with complete confidence through the Qur’an true cosmic events of generally the past and the future from behind the veil of the Unseen, and no trickery or fault being observed in him while being under the gazes of the sharpest eyes, and his believing and affirming every pronouncement of the Qur’an with all his strength and nothing shaking him, is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is revealed and true and the blessed Word of his own Compassionate Creator.

Also a fifth of mankind, indeed the greater part of it, being drawn to the Qur’an and bound to it in religion and giving ear to it eagerly desirous of the truth, and according to the testimony of many indications and events and illuminations, the jinn, angels, and spirit beings also gathering around it in truth-worshipping fashion like moths whenever it is recited(*)is a stamp confirming the Qur’an’s acceptance by all beings and that it occupies a most high position.

Also, all the classes of mankind from the most stupid and lowly to the cleverest and most learned taking their full share of the Qur’an’s instruction and their understanding its most profound truths, and all branches of scholars like the great interpreters of the Greater Shari‘a in particular, and hundreds of Islamic sciences and branches of knowledge, and the brilliant and exacting scholars of theology and the principles of religion extracting from the Qur’an all the needs and answers for their own sciences is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is a source of truth and mine of reality.

Also, although the Arab literary figures, who were the most advanced in regard to literature, —those of them who were not Muslims— had the greatest need to dispute the Qur’an, their avoiding producing the like of only a single sura and its eloquence, eloquence being only one aspect of the seven major aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, as well as the famous orators and brilliant scholars up to the present who have wanted to gain fame through disputing it being unable to oppose a single aspect of its miraculousness and their remaining silent in impotence, is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is a miracle and beyond the powers of man.

Yes, the value, superiority, and eloquence of a speech or word is apparent through knowing, “from whom it has come and to whom, and for what purpose;” the Qur’an then can have no like, and none can reach it.

For the Qur’an is a speech and address of the Sustainer of all the worlds and Creator of the whole universe and a dialogue in no way hinting of imitation and artificiality. It is addressed to the one sent in the name of all men, indeed of all beings, the most famous and renowned of mankind, the strength and breadth of whose belief gave rise to mighty Islam and raised its owner to the level of the “Distance of Two Bow-strings” and returned him as the addressee of the Eternally Besought One. It describes and explains the matters concerning happiness in this world and the next, the results of the creation of the universe, and the dominical purposes within it. It expounds also the belief of the one it addresses, which was the highest and most extensive of belief and bore all the truths of Islam. It turns and shows every side of the huge universe like a map, a clock, or a house, and teaches and describes it in the manner of the Craftsman Who made them — to produce the like of this Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition is not possible; the degree of its miraculousness cannot be attained to.

Also, thousands of precise and learned scholars of high intelligence have each written commentaries expounding the Qur’an, some of which are of thirty, forty, or even seventy volumes, showing and proving through evidence and argument the innumerable qualities, fine points, characteristics, mysteries, elevated meanings, and numerous indications concerning every sort of hidden and unseen matter in the Qur’an. And the one hundred and thirty parts of the Risale-i Nur in particular, each of which proves with decisive arguments one quality, one fine point of the Qur’an. Each part of it — like The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, and the Second Station of the Twentieth Word, which deduces many things from the Qur’an concerning the wonders of civilization like the railway and the aeroplane, and the First Ray, called Signs of the Qur’an, which makes known the indications of verses alluding to the Risale-i Nur and electricity, and the eight short treatises called The Eight Symbols, which show how well-ordered, full of meaning, and mysterious are the words of the Qur’an, and the small treatise proving in five aspects the miraculousness of the verses at the end of Sura al-Fath in regard to their giving news of the Unseen — each part of the Risale-i Nur shows one truth, one light of the Qur’an. All this forms a stamp confirming that the Qur’an has no like, is a miracle and a marvel, and that it is the tongue of the World of the Unseen in the Manifest World and the Word of One All- Knowing of the Unseen.

Thus, due to these qualities and characteristics of the Qur’an indicated above in six points, six aspects, and six levels, its sublime, luminous sovereignty and sacred, mighty rule has continued with perfect splendour illuminating the faces of the centuries and the face of the earth for one thousand three hundred years. And also on account of these qualities of the Qur’an, each of its letters has gained the sacred distinction of yielding at least ten rewards, ten merits, and ten eternal fruits, and the letters of certain verses and suras yielding a hundred or a thousand fruits, or even more, and at blessed times the light, reward, and value of each letter rising from ten to hundreds. The traveller through the world understood this and said to his heart:

“The Qur’an, which is thus miraculous in every respect, through the consensus of its suras, the agreement of its verses, the accord of its lights and mysteries, and the concurrence of its fruits and works, so testifies with its evidences in the form of proofs to the existence, unity, attributes, and Names of a Single Necessarily Existent One that it is from its testimony that the endless testimony of all the believers has issued forth.”

Thus, in brief allusion to the instruction in belief and Divine unity that the traveller received from the Qur’an, it was said in the Seventeeth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the One and Unique Necessary Existent, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, the book accepted and desired by all species of angel, men and jinn, whose verses are read each minute of the year, with the utmost reverence, by hundreds of millions of men, whose sacred sovereignty over the regions of the earth and the universe and the face of time is permanent, whose spiritual and luminous authority has run over half the earth and a fifth of humanity, for more than fourteen centuries, with the utmost splendour. Testimony and proof is also given by the unanimity of its sacred and heavenly suras, the agreement of its luminous, divine verses, the congruence of its mysteries and lights, the correspondence of its fruits and effects, by witnessing and clear vision.

Our traveller, our voyager through life, knew now that faith is the most precious capital man can have, for it bestows on indigent man not some transient and ephemeral field or dwelling, but a palace, indeed an eternal kingdom as vast as the whole cosmos or the world itself. Faith also bestows on ephemeral man all he will need for life eternal; delivers from eternal annihilation wretched man who waits on the gallows for the arrival of fate; and opens to man an eternal treasury of everlasting felicity. The traveller then said to himself:

“Onward! In order to gain a further degree from among the infinite degrees of faith, let us refer to the totality of the cosmos, and listen to what it says. We will then be able to perfect and illumine the lessons we have received from its components and parts.”

Looking through the broad and comprehensive telescope he had taken from the Qur’an, he saw the cosmos to be so meaningful and well-ordered that it took on the shape of an embodied book of the Glorious One, an incarnate dominical Qur’an, a finely adorned palace of the Eternally Besought One, an orderly city of the Most Merciful. All the suras, verses, and words of that book of the universe, even its very letters, chapters, divisions, pages, and lines, through their constant meaningful effacement and reaffirmation, their wise changes and alternations, gave unanimous expression to the existence and presence of One Who has Knowledge of all things and Power over all things as the author of the book, of a Glorious Inscriber and a Perfect Scribe seeing all things in all things and knowing the relationship of all things with all things. So too all the species and particles of the cosmos, all its inhabitants and contents, all that enters it and leaves it, all the providential changes and the wise processses of rejuvenation that occur in it — these proclaim in unison the existence and unity of an exalted craftsman, a peerless Maker Who sets to work with limitless power and infinite wisdom. The testimony of two great and vast truths, of a piece with the immensity of the cosmos, affirms this supreme witness of the cosmos.

FIRST TRUTH: These are the truths of ‘createdness’ and ‘contingency’ established with countless proofs by the gifted scholars of the principles of religion and the science of theology, as well as the sages of Islam.

They said that since change and mutation are to be observed in the world and all things, the world must be ephemeral and created; it cannot be uncreated. If it is created, then there must be a Maker who created it. And if there is no cause to be found in the essence of a thing either for its being or for its non-being, so that these two are equally possible, that thing cannot be necessary and eternal. It has further been proven with decisive arguments that it is not possible for things to create each other, since that would involve the absurd and false notion of causality and never-ending causal sequences. Hence the existence of a Necessary Existence becomes necessary, whose like cannot exist, whose similitude is impossible, all other than whom is contingent and created by him.

Yes, the truth of createdness has permeated the whole of the cosmos, and many instances of it are visible to the eye; the rest can be seen only by the intellect. For in front of our eyes a whole world dies every autumn, and together with it die hundreds of thousands of different kinds of plants and small animals, each member of each species being like a small cosmos unto himself. It is, however, so orderly and disciplined a death that all things leave behind in their places seeds and eggs that in the spring shall be the means of resurrection and rebirth, miracles of mercy and wisdom, miracles of power and knowledge. They hand to the seeds and eggs their book of deeds and plan of action, entrusting them to the wisdom of the Glorious Preserver and under His protection, and only then do they die.

In spring, the dead trees, roots and animals come to life again exactly as they were, thus providing hundreds of thousands of examples, specimens and proofs of the supreme resurrection. In the place of others, plants and animals resembling them exactly are brought into being and life, thus publishing the pages of the beings of the preceding spring, together with their deeds and functions, just like an advertisement. Thus they demonstrate one meaning of the verse, When the pages are spread out.(*)

Then also, with respect to the whole, each autumn a great world dies, and each spring a fresh world comes into being. That death and creation proceed in so orderly a manner, and so many separate deaths and creations occur within them, in such orderly and regular fashion, that it is as if the world were a traveller’s lodge where animate beings reside for a time, where travelling worlds and migrant realms come, fulfil their duties, and then go on their way.

So there is apparent to all intellects, with the clarity of the sun, the necessary existence, infinite power and unending wisdom of a Glorious Being Who creates and brings into being in this world vital realms and purposive universes, with perfect wisdom, knowledge, and equilibrium, with balance, order and regularity, and Who then employs them for dominical purposes, Divine aims and Merciful goals, with full power and compassion. We leave to the Risale-i Nur and the books of the theologians the further discussion of matters related to createdness.

As for contingence, it prevails over and surrounds all of the cosmos. For we see that all things, universal or particular, big or small, from God’s Throne down to the ground, from the atom to the planet, all are sent to the world with a particular essence, a specific form, a distinct identity, particular attributes, wise qualities, and beneficial organs. Now to bestow on that particular essence and quiddity its peculiarities, from amongst the infinite possibilities available; to clothe it in its specific, distinctive and appropriate form, from among the possibilities and probabilities that are as numerous as the forms that may be conceived; to distinguish that being with the identity suited to it, from among the possibilities as numerous as the other members of its species; to endow with special, suitable and beneficial attributes the created object that is formless and hesitant midst the possibilities and probabilities that are as numerous as the varieties of attribute and degree; to affix to that aimless creature, perplexed and distraught amidst the innumerable possibilities and probabilities that result from the infinitude of conceivable paths and modalities

—to affix to it wise qualities and beneficial organs and equip it with them— all of these are indications, proofs, and affirmations to the number of the innumerable possibilities of the necessary existence, infinite power and unlimited wisdom of the Necessary Existent Who creates, chooses, specifies, and distinguishes the quiddity and identity, the form and shape, the attribute and situation of all contingent beings, whether they be universals or particulars. They indicate, too, that no object and no matter is hidden from Him, that nothing is difficult for Him, that the greatest task is as easy for Him as the smallest, that He can create a spring as easily as a tree, and a tree as easily as a seed. All this, then, pertains to the truth of contingence, and forms one wing of the great testimony borne by the cosmos.

Since the testimony of the cosmos, with its two wings and two truths, is fully established and explained in various parts of the Risale-i Nur, and particularly the Twenty-Second and Thirty-Second Words, as well as the Twentieth and Thirty-Third Letters, we refer our readers to those writings, and cut short an extremely long story.

As for the Second Truth that proceeds from the total scheme of the cosmos, which is also the second wing of its great and universal testimony, it is as follows:

SECOND TRUTH: There is to be seen a truth of co-operation among these beings that are attempting to maintain their existence, and if they are animate, their life, and fulfil their functions in the midst of constantly stirring changes and revolutions, a truth that lies far beyond their capacities.

For example, the elements hasten to aid animate beings; the clouds to help the vegetable kingdom; the vegetable kingdom, to help the animal kingdom; the animal kingdom, to help the human kingdom. Milk gushes forth from the breast, like the spring of Paradise, to succour the infant; the fact that animate beings are given their needs and sustenance in a manner that transcends their capacity, from unexpected places; the replenishing of the cells of the body with particles of food, through their being subjugated by their Sustainer and their employment at His merciful hands — all of these and numerous other examples of the truth of co-operation demonstrate the universal and compassionate dominicality of the Sustainer of All the Worlds, Who administers the cosmos like a palace.

Solid, inanimate and unfeeling objects, that nonetheless co-operate with each other in a sensitive and conscious fashion, must of necessity be caused to rush to each other’s aid by the power, mercy, and command of a Compassionate, Wise, and Glorious Sustainer.

The universal co-operation visible throughout the cosmos; the comprehensive equilibrium and all-embracing preservation prevailing with the utmost regularity in all things, from the planets to the members, limbs and bodily particles of animate beings; the adorning whose pen ranges over the gilded face of the heavens, the decorated face of the earth, and the delicate faces of flowers; the ordering that prevails over all things, from the Milky Way and solar system down to fruits such as corn and pomegranates; the assigning of duties to all things, from the sun and the moon, the elements and the clouds, down to honey-bees — all of these great truths offer a testimony of proportionate greatness, and their testimony forms the second wing of the testimony offered by the cosmos. Since the Risale-i Nur has established and clarified this great testimony, we will content ourselves here with this brief indication.

In brief allusion to the lesson of faith learned by our traveller from the cosmos, we said in the Eighteenth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the like of Whom cannot exist, other than Whom all things are contingent, the One, the Unique, to the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity points the cosmos, the great book incarnate, the supreme Qur’an personified, the ornate and orderly palace, the splendid and well-arranged city, with all of its suras, verses, letters, chapters, parts, pages, and lines, with the agreement of its fundaments, species, parts and particles, its inhabitants and contents, what enters it and what leaves it; with the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of createdness, change and contingency; with the consensus of all scholars of the science of theology; with the testimony of the truth of the changing of its form and its contents, with wisdom and regularity, and the renewal of its letters and words with discipline and equilibrium; and with the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of co-operation, mutual response and solidarity, reciprocal care, balance and preservation, among all its beings, as is to be clearly observed.

Then the ardent and inquisitive traveller, who was seeking the Creator of the world, had advanced by gaining knowledge of God indirectly through eighteen degrees and approached, at the end of an ascension in belief to the throne of truth, a station where in the presence of God, he addressed Him directly. He said to his own spirit:

“In the noble opening sura of the Qur’an, the verses that extend from the beginning to the word iyyaka (You alone) are like a form of praise and encomium uttered indirectly; but the word iyyaka signifies a coming into His presence and addresssing Him directly. So too we should abandon this indirect seeking and ask for the object of search from the object of our search. For one must ask the sun, that shows all things, concerning the sun, since that which shows all things will show itself even more clearly. Just as we perceive and know the sun by its rays, so too we can strive to know our Creator, in accordance with our capacities, through His Most Beautiful Names and Sacred Attributes.”

We will set forth here, with the utmost brevity and concision, two of the countless paths that lead to this goal; two of the infinite degrees of those two paths; and two of the abundant truths and details of those two degrees.

THE FIRST TRUTH: There appears visible to our eye a comprehensive, permanent, orderly and awesome truth, one that changes, transforms, and renews all beings in heaven and on earth, with imperious and incessant activity. Within the truth of that in every way wise activity, there is immediately perceived the truth of the manifestation of dominicality, and in turn, within the truth of that in every way merciful manifestation of dominicality, is recognizable the truth of the epiphany of Divinity.

From this continuous, wise and imperious activity, the deeds of an All-Powerful and All-Knowing Doer can be discerned, as if from behind a veil.

And from behind the veil of these nurturing and administering deeds of dominicality, the Divine Names, manifest in all things, can be immediately perceived.

Then behind the veil of the Beautiful Names, manifest with Glory and Beauty, can be deduced the existence and reality of the seven sacred attributes,

according to the testimony of all creation, in a life-giving, powerful, knowledgeable, all-hearing, all-seeing, volitional and speech- endowed form, there appears to the eye of faith in the heart,self-evidently, necessarily, and with full certainty, the existence of a Necessary Existent that is described by these attributes, a Single One of Unity known by these Names, a Peerless and Eternal Doer, in a form more evidential and brilliant than the sun.

For a beautiful and profound book necessarily presupposes the act of writing and a well-built house presupposes the act of building; and the acts of writing beautifully and building well presuppose the names of writer and builder; and the titles of writer and builder obviously imply the arts and attributes of writing and building; and these arts and attributes self-evidently necessitate one who will be qualified by the names and attributes, and be the artist and craftsman. For just as it is impossible for there to be a deed without a doer, or a name without one designated by the name, so too it is not possible for there to be an attribute without one qualified by the attribute, and for there to be a craft without a craftsman.

On the basis, then, of this truth and principle, the universe with all the beings it contains resembles a collection of profound books and letters written by the pen of Divine Determining, and countless buildings and palaces constructed with the hammer of Divine Power. Each of these singly in thousands of ways and together in uncountable ways utters the following testimony: These innumerable dominical and merciful deeds, and the endless manifestations of the thousand and one Divine Names which are the source of the deeds, and the infinite manifestations of the seven transcendent attributes which are the source of the Beautiful Names, in endless and infinite ways point to and testify to the necessary existence and unity of an All-Glorious Essence Which is the source of those all- embracing, sacred seven attributes and is qualified by them. And so too all the instances of beauty, loveliness, perfection, and exquisiteness found in those beings self- evidently testify all together to the sacred beauties and perfections of the dominical deeds, and the Divine Names, and attributes, and qualities, which are fitting and worthy of them, and to the sacred beauty of the Most Pure and Holy Essence.

So the truth of dominicality that manifests itself within the truth of activity reveals and makes itself known in qualities and acts such as creating, originating, fashioning and bringing into being, with knowledge and wisdom; determining, forming, administering and changing with regularity and balance; transforming, causing to descend and perfecting, with purpose and will; and feeding, nurturing, and bestowing generosity and bounty, with tenderness and mercy.

And within the truth of the manifestation of dominicality, the truth of the immediately perceived revelation of Divinity makes itself known and recognized through the compassionate and munificent manifestations of the Beautiful Names and through the Glorious and Beauteous manifestations of the seven affirmative attributes: Life, Knowledge, Power, Will, Hearing, Sight, and Speech.

Just as the attribute of Speech makes the Most Sacred Essence known through revelation and inspiration, so too the attribute of Power makes the Essence known through its skilled works and effects, each of which is like a word assuming external shape. Presenting the cosmos from end to end under the aspect of an incarnate book of discernment, it describes and makes known a Powerful Possessor of Glory.

As for the attribute of Knowledge, it makes known a single Most Sacred Essence, through each of the wise, well-ordered and balanced objects of creation, through each creature administered, directed, adorned, and made distinct by God’s Knowledge.

As for the attribute of Life, it is proven not only by its own evidences, but also by all the works that proclaim God’s Power, by all the well-ordered, wise, balanced and adorned forms and states that indicate God’s Knowledge, as well as by all proofs of all other attributes. Thus Life, showing as witnesses all animate beings, which act as mirrors reflecting those abundant proofs, makes known an Eternally Living and Self- Subsistent Essence.

It is also this attribute that constantly changes the cosmos, in order to produce in it ever-fresh and various manifestations and designs, and turns it into a supreme mirror composed of countless smaller mirrors. Similarly, the attributes of Seeing and Hearing, Willing and Speaking, each reveal and make known the Most Sacred Essence, just as the cosmos does.

Then, too, just as the attributes point to the existence of the Possessor of Glory, they also indicate in most manifest fashion the existence and reality of life, and the livingness and permanence of that Essence. For Knowing is a sign of Life; Hearing is an indication of Life; Seeing belongs only to the living; Will takes place only with Life. Purposive Power is found only in living beings, and Speech is a task for those endowed with Knowledge and Life.

It follows from the foregoing that the attribute of Life has proofs seven times as numerous as the cosmos, and evidences that proclaim its existence and the existence of the One Whom it qualifies. Thus it comes to be the foundation and source of the attributes, the origin and support of the Supreme Name. Since the Risale-i Nur establishes this first truth with powerful proofs and clarifies it, we will content ourselves now with a drop from this ocean.

THE SECOND TRUTH: Divine discourse, which proceeds from the attribute of Speech.

Were the sea to become ink for the words of my Sustainer...(*)According to the inner sense of this verse, Divine discourse is infinite. The clearest sign demonstrating the existence of a being is his speech. This truth, therefore, constitutes an infinite testimony to the existence and unity of the Pre-Eternal Speaker.

Since two powerful evidences of this truth are revelation and inspiration, set forth in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Degrees of this treatise; another broad proof is provided by sacred and heavenly Books, as indicated in the Tenth Degree; and a further most brilliant and comprehensive proof is furnished by the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, as discussed in the Seventeenth Degree — for all these reasons we refer our readers to those Degrees for the exposition and affirmation of this truth. Enough for us and for our traveller, who was unable to proceed beyond this point, are the lights and mysteries contained in the sublime verse that proclaims this truth in miraculous fashion and adds it own testimony to all of the preceding ones:God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the angels and the possessors of knowledge; steadfast in equity; there is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise!(*)

In allusion to the core of the lesson learned by our traveller at this sacred Station, we said, in the Nineteenth Degree of the First Station:There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the One, the Unique; His are the Beautiful Names, His are the Supreme Attributes, and His is the Most Sublime Similitude. To His Necessary Existence in Unity points the necessarily existent Essence, with the consensus of all its sacred and comprehensive attributes and all of its Beautiful Names, manifested according to the consensus of His dominant qualities and deeds. By the testimony of the sublimity of the truth of the self-revelation of Divinity in the manifestation of dominicality, in the permanence of imperious activity through the act of bringing into being, creating, making and originating, in will and in power; and through the act of determining, forming and regulating, in choice and in wisdom; through the act of expending, preserving, ordering, administering, and nurturing in purposiveness and mercy, in complete order and equilibrium; as too by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of the mysteries of the verse: God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the angels and the possessors of knowledge; steadfast in equity; there is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise!

NOTE

Each of the truths that offer their testimony in the Nineteen Degrees of the First Chapter of the Second Station above not only indicate Necessary Existence through existence and presence, but also through their comprehensiveness, attest God’s unity and oneness. But since they prove existence most clearly and explicitly, we regarded them first as proofs of Necessary Existence.

As for the Second Chapter of the Second Station, the truths in question will be designated instead as proofs of Divine unity, insofar as they explicitly prove unity, and implicitly necessity. In reality, each proves the other; unity proves necessity, and necessity proves unity.

In order to indicate the difference, we said repeatedly in the First Chapter, “By the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of....,” while in the Second Chapter we shall recurrently say, “By the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of...,” thus indicating the evident visibility of Divine unity.

I had the intention of explaining the degrees of the Second Chapter, just as I did in the First Chapter, but on account of various obstacles I am compelled to be summary and concise. I leave it to other parts of the Risale-i Nur to expound these matters as they deserve to be expounded.

Second Chapter

Concerning Proofs of the Divine Unity

[The traveller who had been sent to the world in order to attain faith, who journeyed through the whole cosmos in his mind in order to ask all things concerning his Creator, to seek his Sustainer in every place and find his God, with the utmost certainty, at the point of Necessary Existence — this traveller said to his intellect: “Come, let us depart on a new journey in order to behold the proofs of the unity of our Necessarily Existent Creator.”]

They set out together. At the First Stopping-Place, they saw four sacred truths prevailing over the whole cosmos, truths that self-evidently necessitated the unity of God.

THE FIRST TRUTH: Absolute Divinity

The absorption of each class of men in a mode of worship dictated by their innate dispositions; the species of worship engaged in by other animate beings, as well as inanimate beings, through the performance of their essential functions; the way in which all material and immaterial bounties and gifts in the cosmos become means inciting men to worship and thanks, to praise and gratitude; the fashion in which all the manifestations of the Unseen and epiphanies of the spirit, revelation and inspiration, unanimously proclaim the exclusive fitness of one God to receive worship — all of this, in most evidential fashion, proves the reality and dominance of a single and absolute Divinity.

If the truth of such a Divinty exists, it can in no way accept partnership. For those who respond to Divinity —that is, the fitness to be worshipped— with thanks and worship, are the conscious and animate fruits on the highest branches of the tree of the cosmos. If others were able to gratify and place under their obligation those conscious beings in such fashion as to make them turn away from and forget their true object of worship —Who may, indeed, be swiftly forgotten, because of his invisibility— this would be in such utter contradiction to the essence of Divinty and its sacred purposes that it could in no way be allowed.

It is for this reason that the Qur’an so repeat edly and with such vehemence refutes polytheism and threatens the polytheists with Hell-fire.

THE SECOND TRUTH: Absolute Dominicality

The ubiquitous workings of a wise and compassionate hidden hand throughout the cosmos, especially in animate beings and their nurturing and development, everywhere in the same fashion and yet in a totally unexpected form, must be, without doubt, the emanation and light of an absolute dominicality and a decisive proof of its reality.

An absolute dominicality cannot accept any partnership for since the important aims and purposes of dominicality, such as the manifestation of its beauty, the proclamation of its perfection, the revelation of its precious arts and the display of its hidden accomplishments, are combined and concentrated in particulars and animate beings, the slightest attribution to God of a partner, when entering even the most particular of things and the smallest of animate beings, will frustrate the attainment of those purposes and destroy those aims. Averting the faces of conscious beings from those purposes and the One Who conceived them toward causes will be totally opposed and hostile to the essence of dominicality, and absolute dominicality cannot in any way countenance it.

The abundant proclamations in the Qur’an of God’s sanctity and transcendence, its verses and words, even its letters and their shapes, are constant guides to God’s unity, made necessary by the mystery we have just expounded.

THE THIRD TRUTH: Perfections

The self-evident testimony to the existence of the truth of perfections given by all the exalted instances of wisdom in the universe, all its wondrous beauties, its just laws, its wise purposes, and in particular its testimony to the perfections of the Creator, Who brought forth the cosmos out of the void and then administered it in every way miraculously and beauteously, as well as the perfections of man, who is the conscious mirror of the Creator — such testimony is extremely clear.

There exists then the truth of perfections, and the certainty that the Creator Who fashioned the cosmos in perfection must Himself possess perfection. Further, the perfections of man, the most important fruit of the universe, vicegerent of the earth, the beloved and most valued object of His creation — these are also established as true.

Therefore, to assign partners to God would be unacceptable and false, for it would condemn to destruction and perdition all of the perfect and wise beings we behold with our eyes; it would turn the cosmos into a vain plaything of accident, a place of amusement for nature, a cruel slaughterhouse for the animate, an awesome house of sorrows for the conscious; it would reduce man, whose perfections are visible in his works, to the level of the most wretched, distraught and vile animal; and it would draw a veil across the infinite perfections of the Creator that are reflected in the mirror of all beings, thus nullifying the result of His activity and denying His creativity.

Since assigning partners to God contradicts Divine, human and cosmic perfections and its denial of them has been established and explained in the First Station of the Second Ray (devoted to three ‘Fruits’ of Divine unity) with strong and decisive proofs, we refer our readers that work and cut short the discussion here.

THE FOURTH TRUTH: Sovereignty

Whoever looks at the cosmos with comprehensive attention, will see it to resemble a most prosperous and active kingdom, a city administered most wisely and ruled most firmly; he sees all things and all species obediently engaged in a particular function. According to the military metaphor contained in the verse, God’s are the armies of the heavens and earth,(*) the prevailing creative commands, imperious orders, and kingly laws enunciated in those numerous armies, that extend from the hosts of the atom, the battalions of the vegetable kingdom, the brigades of the animal kingdom, to the armies of the stars, and embrace both the lowliest soldier and the loftiest commander — they all indicate self- evidently the existence of an absolute sovereignty and a universal authority.

There is then a truth of absolute sovereignty, and there can be no truth of assigning partners to God. For according to the decisive truth of the verse, Were there to be in the heavens and earth gods other than God, verily they would be corrupted,(*)if numerous hands all engage assertively in the same task, the result will be confusion. If there are two kings in one country, or even two headmen in one district, order will disappear, and administration be replaced by anarchy. But on the contrary we see everywhere such order, from the wing of the fly to the lamps of the heavens, from the cells of the body to the signs of the planets, that there is no possibility for the intervention of any partner in God’s affairs.

Sovereignty is, moreover, a station of dignity; to accept a rival would flout the dignity of sovereignty. The fact that man, who needs the assistance of many people on account of his impotence, will kill his brothers and offspring in the cruellest fashion for the sake of some petty, apparent and temporary sovereignty, shows that sovereignty rejects all notion of partnership. If so feeble a one acts thus for the sake of so petty a sovereignty, it follows that the Possessor of Absolute Power, the Master of All Creation, will never permit one other than Himself to participate in His sacred sovereignty, the means to His real and universal dominicality and Divinity.

Since this truth has been established with firm proofs in numerous places throughout the Risale-i Nur and especially the Second Station of the Second Ray, we refer the reader to those pages for further discussion of it.

Through witnessing these four truths, our traveller came to know Divine unity with the degree of certain and clear witnessing. His faith shone, and with all his power he said, “There is no god but God, He is One, He has no partner.”

In brief allusion to the lesson he derived from this station, we said in the Second Chapter of the First Station: There is no god but God, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity and the Necessity of Whose Existence point the witnessing of the sublimity of the truth of the manifestation of absolute Divinity, as well as the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of the manifestation of absolute dominicality that requires Unity, the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of the perfections that arise from unity, and the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of absolute sovereignty, that prevents and contradicts the existence of any partnership.

Then that restless traveller addressed his heart and said: “The fact that the people of faith, and particularly those affiliated with a sufi order, are constantly repeating the words, ‘no god but He,’ and recalling and proclaiming God’s unity, is an indication that the affirmation of God’s unity comprises many degrees. Such affirmation is moreover a most enjoyable, most valuable, and most exalted sacred duty, instinctive function, and act of worship. Let us then in order to attain a further degree, open the door of another stopping-place in this abode of instruction.

For the true affirmation of God’s unity we seek is not some imaginary species of knowledge. It is rather an affirmation that in terms of logic is deemed the opposite of imagination, that is far more valuable than cognition based on imagination, that is the result of proof, that is designated a knowledge.”

The true affirmation of God’s unity is a judgement, a confirmation, an assent and acceptance that can find its Sustainer present with all things, that sees in all things a path leading to its Creator, and does not regard anything as an obstacle to His presence. For otherwise it would always be necessary to tear and cast aside the veil of the cosmos in order to find its Sustainer. “Onward, then,” said the traveller to himself, as he knocked at the door of God’s Sublimity and Grandeur. He entered the Stopping- Place of God’s deeds and workings, the world of creation and origination, and there he saw that five comprehensive truths were prevailing over the entire cosmos, and offering self-evident proof of the Divine unity.

THE FIRST TRUTH:

that of Grandeur and Sublimity. Since this truth is explained with different proofs in the Second Station of the Second Ray and various other places in the Risale-i Nur, we restrict ourselves here to the following:

The Being that creates and then administers at a single time and in a single fashion the stars that are thousands of years distant from each other; that creates at a single time and in a single form the countless members of the same species of flower, distributed over the east and the west, the north and south of the globe;

that administers, nurtures, quickens, distinguishes and adorns more than two hundred thousand different types of plant and species of animal in five or six weeks, with the utmost regularity and equilibrium, without any confusion, defect or error, in order to provide every spring on the face of the earth more than a hundred thousand specimens of the supreme resurrection, and thus prove before man’s eyes a remarkable event, now belonging to the past and the realm of the Unseen, namely the creation of the heavens and the earth in six days, as indicated in the verse, He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days;(*)

the Being that causes the earth to revolve, as evidenced in the verse, He merges night with day, and day with night,(*)

and turns the night into the page on which the events of the day are written — this same Being knows and administers according to His own will, all at the same time, the most secret and obscure thoughts that occur  to men’s hearts.

Since each of the aforementioned acts is in reality one act, it follows that their Glorious Doer is a Unique and Powerful Being, enjoying such grandeur and sublimity that nowhere, in nothing, in no way, does it leave the slightest possibility for the acceptance of partnership; on the contrary, it uproots all such possibility.

Since such sublime power and grandeur exist and since that grandeur is at the very apex of perfection and comprehends everything, it is certainly in no way possible to permit or allow any attribution of partners to that Unique and Powerful Being, for so doing would ascribe impotence or need to that power, fault to that grandeur, defect to that perfection, and impose restriction on that comprehensiveness.

No sound intellect could deem this possible. The assignment of partners to God, is then by virtue of the offence it causes to God’s Grandeur, the dignity of his Glory and His Sublimity, so grave a crime that the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition decrees with an earnest threat, God does not pardon the assignment to Him of a partner; He pardons whatever is lesser than that.(*)

THE SECOND TRUTH:

The absoluteness, the comprehensiveness, and appearance in infinite form of the dominical deeds seen at work in the cosmos.It is only God’s wisdom and will that limits and restricts those deeds, as well as the inherent capacities of the objects and places in which they manifest themselves. Stray chance, dumb nature, blind force, unconscious causality and the elements that without restriction are scattered in every direction — none of these can have any part in the most balanced, wise perspicacious, life-giving, orderly and firm deeds of the Creator. They are used, rather, by the command, will, and power of the Glorious Doer as an apparent veil to conceal His power.

Three out of innumerable examples: We will set forth three from among the numerous subtle points that relate to the three deeds indicated in three continuous verses in Sura al-Nahl.

The First: Your Sustainer inspired in the bee that it should seek a dwelling-place in the mountains.(*)

The bee is, with respect to its disposition and function, such a miracle of God’s power that a whole sura, Sura al-Nahl, has been named after it. For to inscribe in the minute head of that little honey-machine a complete programme for the fulfilment of its important task; to place in its diminutive stomach the most delicious of foods and to ripen it there; to place in its sting poison capable of destroying and killing animate beings, without causing any harm to its own body or the member in question — to do all this without the utmost care and knowledge, with exceeding wisdom and purposiveness, partakes of a perfect orderliness and equilibrium, and hence unconscious, disorderly, disequilibriated nature and accident could never interfere or participate in any of this.

The appearance and comprehensiveness of this Divine craft, this dominical deed, which is miraculous in three separate respects, in the countless bees that are found scattered over the earth, with the same wisdom, the same care, the same symmetry, at the same time and in the same fashion — this is a self-evident proof of God’s unity.

The Second Verse: There is for you a lesson in cattle. From what is within their bodies, between excretions and blood, we produce for your drink, milk, pure and agreeable to those who drink it.(*)

This verse is a decree overflowing with useful instruction. To place in the nipples of cows, camels, goats and sheep, as well as human mothers, in the midst of blood and excrement but  without being polluted by them, a substance the exact opposite, pure, clean,  pleasant, nutritive and white  milk, and to inspire  in their hearts  tenderness toward their young that is still more pleasant, sweeter and more valuable than milk — this requires such a degree of mercy, wisdom, knowledge, power, will and care that it cannot in any way be the work of turbulent chance, of the tangled elements, or of blind forces.

The manifestation, workings and comprehensiveness of so miraculous a dominical art and so wise a Divine deed, all over the face of the globe and in the countless hearts and breasts of innumerable mothers of hundreds of thousands of species, in the same instant, the same fashion, with the same wisdom and the same care — this too constitutes a self-evident proof of God’s unity.

The Third Verse: From the fruits of the date-palm and the vine you take sugar and fine nourishment; verily therein is a sign for a people possessing intelligence.(*)

This verse invites our attention to the date and to grapes, saying, “For those of intelligence, there is great proof, argument and evidence of the Divine unity in these two fruits. These two fruits yield nurture and sustenance, fresh and dry fruit, and give rise to most delicious forms of food; yet the trees that bear them stand in waterless sand and dry soil, and are thus miracles of power and wonders of wisdom. They are each of them like a factory producing sweet sugar, a machine manufacturing honeylike syrup, a work of art created with perfect order and sensitive balance, wisdom and care; hence anyone with a grain of intelligence will say on contemplating them, ‘The one who made them in this fashion may very well be the Creator of the whole cosmos.’”

For in front of our eyes each vine branch the thickness of a finger will hold twenty bunches of grapes, and each bunch will in turn contain hundreds of sugary grapes, each like a litle pump emitting syrup. To clothe the surface of each grape with a fine, delicate, thin, and colourful protection; to place in its delicate and soft heart seeds with their hard shells, which are like its retentive faculty, programme, and the story of its life; to manufacture in its stomach a sweetmeat like the helva of Paradise, a honey like the water of Kawthar; to create an infinite number of such grapes over the face of the entire earth, with the same care and wisdom and wonderful art, and at the same time and in the same fashion — this proves in self-evident fashion that the one who fulfils these tasks is the Creator of the whole cosmos, and this deed, requiring as it does infinite power and limitless wisdom, can be only His deed.

Yes, blind and stray, disorderly and unconscious, aimless, aggressive, and anarchic forces, nature and causality, cannot have anything to do with this most sensitive balance, this most skilful art, this most wise scheme. They cannot even stretch out their hands toward it. It falls to them only to be employed through the dominical command as passive objects, as curtainholders.

Just like the three points proving Divine unity contained in the three truths indicated in the three verses, the countless manifestations and workings of infinite dominical deeds attest unanimously the unity of a Single One of Unity, the All- Glorious One.

THE THIRD TRUTH:

The creation of beings, particularly plants and animals, with absolute speed and absolute orderliness; with absolute ease and extreme skill, talent, ability, and order; with great value and distinction, despite extreme abundance and intermingling.

Yes, to produce with extreme swiftness and in extreme abundance, most skilfully and artistically, with great ease and facility combined with the utmost care and orderliness, with great value and distinction despite abundance and intermingling, without any form of confusion or deficiency — this can be achieved only by a Unique Being Whose power is such that nothing appears difficult to it. For that power it is as easy to create stars as atoms, the greatest as the smallest, a whole species as a single member of a species, a sublime and comprehensive universal as a restricted and petty particular; it is as easy for Him to revivify and quicken the whole earth as to do the same with a tree or to erect a tree as tall as a mountain as it is to produce a seed no bigger than a fingernail. All of these deeds He performs in front of our eyes.

So the exposition, the solution, the uncovering and proof of the mystery of this degree of the assertion of the Divine unity, this Third Truth, this word of unity — the mystery that the greatest universal is like the smallest particular without the slightest difference between them —this beneficial wisdom, this supreme talisman, this riddle beyond the reach of the intellect, this most significant foundation of Islam, this most profound source of faith, this greatest basis of the Divine unity— the setting forth of all this opens the talisman of the Qur’an, and makes it possible to know the most secret and unknowable riddle of the creation of all beings, a riddle that reduces philosophy to impotence.

Thanks and praise one hundred thousand times the letters of the Risale-i Nur be to the Compassionate Creator that the Risale-i Nur has solved, uncovered and established this wondrous talisman, this wondrous riddle. It has been proven with decisive arguments, to the same degree of certainty that twice two is four, particularly in the discussion of “He is powerful over all things” toward the end of the Twentieth Letter; in the section concerning God’s being an all-powerful agent in the Twenty- Ninth Word, one devoted to the resurrection; and in the section proving the Divine power in the degrees of “God is Most Great” in the Twenty-Ninth Flash, written in Arabic.

For that reason we assign to those parts of the Risale-i Nur the exposition of this matter, wishing, however, to set out briefly the foundations and proofs that solve this mystery and to allude to thirteen mysteries that resemble thirteen steps, or a list of contents. I have indeed written the first and second mysteries, but unfortunately two powerful obstacles, material and immaterial, have caused me to abandon the remainder.

The First Mystery: If something be essential, its opposite cannot have access to the essence defined by that thing. For that would be equivalent to the union of opposites, which is an absurdity. Now with regard to this principle, since God’s power is related to His Essence and is an essential concomitant of His Most Sacred Essence, impotence —the opposite of power— cannot in any way gain access to that All-Powerful Essence.

Moreover, the existence of degrees within a thing comes about through the intervention in it of its opposite. For example, strong and weak degrees of light result from the intervention of darkness; high and low degrees of heat proceed from the admixture of coldness; and greater and lesser amounts of strength are determined by the intervention and opposition of resistance. It is therefore impossible that degrees should exist in that power of the Divine Essence. He creates all things as if they were but a single thing.

And since degrees do not exist in the power of the Divine Essence and it does not admit of weakness or deficiency, no obstacle can in any way obstruct it nor can the creation of anything cause it difficulty.

Since, then, nothin is difficult for God’s power, He creates the supreme resurrection with the same ease as spring; spring with the same facility as a tree; and a tree with as little trouble as a flower. Further, He creates a flower as artistically as a tree; a tree as miraculously as a spring; and a spring as comprehensively and wondrously as a resurrection. All of this He accomplishes in front of our eyes.

It has been proved in the Risale-i Nur with decisive and strong proofs that if there were no Divine unity, the making of a flower would be as difficult as a tree or even more difficult; the making of a tree would be as hard a spring or even more difficult; and creation would even lose its value and artistic quality. An animate being that now takes a minute to produce would be produced with difficulty in one year, or maybe never at all.

It is then on account of this mystery that these fruits, flowers, trees and animals, that are extremely valuable despite their ubiquitousness and abundance, and extremely artistic despite the swiftness and ease of their fashioning, emerge in regular fashion onto the plain of being and assume their functions. Proclaiming God’s glory, they accomplish their duties and depart, leaving behind their seed in their stead.

Second Mystery: Through the mystery of luminosity, transparency, and obedience, just as through the manifestation of its essential power, a single sun reflects it light in a single mirror, so too, through the Divine command and due to the extensive activity of that unrestricted power, it can easily bestow the same reflection—together with its light and heat— on innumerable mirrors, shining objects, and droplets. Great and small are the same, there is no difference between them.

Similarly, like a single word can enter the ear of one man without trouble, so too due to the infinite breadth of boundless creativity, it may enter a million ears, with dominical permission.

And a single light like an eye, or a single luminous spirit being like Gabriel, through the infinite breadth of dominical activity within the manifestation of mercy, may be present in, or look at, or enter thousands of places through Divine power, as easily as they look at or enter a single place. There is no difference between many and few.

The pre-eternal power of God’s essence is the most subtle and choicest of lights, the light of all lights; the quiddities, essences and inner dimensions of all things are luminous and lustrous as mirrors; all things, from the atom, the plant, and the animate creature to the stars, the suns and the moons, are extremely obedient and submissive to the command of that power of the Divine Essence and subordinate to the orders of that pre-eternal power. It is for all of these reasons entirely natural that innumerable things should be created with the same ease as a single thing and placed side by side with each other. No concern or task interferes with another. Great and small, many and few, particular and universal — all are the same for that power, for which nothing is difficult.

As was said in the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words, through the mysteries of order, equilibrium, obedience to command and submission to order, that power causes a great ship as big as a hundred houses, to move and advance as a child’s finger pushes his toy.

As a commander will send a single infantryman into battle with an order from his throne, so too he may throw a whole obedient army into the fray with the same single order.

Let us suppose that two mountains are in a state of equilibrium in a large and sensitive balance. In the same way that a single walnut would cause one pan to rise and the other to fall if placed on one side of a balance containing two eggs, it would produce the same result with the scale containing the mountains; through a wise law it would cause one pan with its mountain to rise to the mountain-top, and the other to descend with its mountain to the bottom of the valley.

Since there is to be found in God’s absolute, infinite, luminous, essential and eternal power a Divine justice and unending wisdom that is the origin, source, fundament and beginning of all order, regularity and equilibrium in creation; and since all things, particular and universal, small and great, are obedient to the command of that power and submissive to its workings — it follows that God causes the stars to revolve and to move, through the wisdom of His order, as easily as He rotates and moves the atoms.

In spring, just as He brings to life a single fly with a single order, so too He bestows life with the same ease and the same command on the whole species of fly, as well as all the hosts of plants and animals, through the mystery of the wisdom and equilibrium inherent in His power, and then sends them forth onto the plain of life.

In the same way that he swiftly gives life to a tree in spring and infuses vitality in its bones, with His wise and just absolute power, He also resurrects in the spring the corpse of the vast earth and brings into being hundreds of thousands of different specimens of resurrection similar to the tree, all this with the greatest of ease.

With His creative command, He brings the earth back to life. By the decree of, There will be but a single cry, then they shall all be brought nigh unto Us;(*)that is, “all men and jinn, with a single cry and command shall be brought to Us and made present at the plain of resurrection.”

Again, by His command,The hour shall be but a blinking of the eye, or even closer;(*) that is, the bringing about of resurrection and the gathering that follows upon it shall take no longer than the opening and closing of an eye, or even less.

Then there is the verse,Your creation and resurrection is as a single soul,(*)

meaning the following: “O men! To create you and to bring you to life, to resurrect and gather you, is as easy for me as bringing one soul to life; it presents no problem to My power.” According to the inner sense of these three verses, God will bring all men and jinn, all animals, spirit beings and angels to the field of the Supreme Gathering and the great balance with a single command and with great ease. One concern does not interfere with another.

The remaining Mysteries, from the third and fourth as far as the thirteenth, have been postponed to another time in a fashion disagreeable to me.

THE FOURTH TRUTH:

The existence and appearance of all beings proclaim the Divine unity in a self-evident fashion through their numerous points of unity and convergence, such as being simultaneously together and yet separate and unique; resembling one another; being the miniature or magnified versions of each other; being some, universals and species, and some, particulars and individuals; resembling each other in the stamp of innate disposition; having affinity in the impress of artistry; and aiding and complementing each other with respect to their innate functions. They establish the unity of their Maker. And with respect to dominicality, make it clear that the cosmos is a universal and a whole that may not be divided or fragmented.

For example, in each spring, to create, order and sustain the innumerable members of the four hundred thousand different species of plants and animals, together and intermingled, in a single moment and in the same fashion, without any error or mistake, with the utmost wisdom and perfection of artistry;

to create all the different species of bird, from flies, which are like birds in miniature, to eagles which are the supreme specimens of the species, then to equip them with the means of flight and subsistence and to cause them to journey through the realm of the air; to imprint on the countenances of each of the birds in miraculous fashion a stamp of artistry, on the body of each of them a seal of wisdom, and in the quiddity of each of them, in sustaining fashion, a sign of God’s unity;

to cause wisely and mercifully particles of food to hasten to the aid of the cells of the body, plants to rush to the assistance of animals, and all mothers to go swiftly to the help of their powerless infants;

to work on all things, particular and universal, from the Milky Way, the solar system and the elements of the earth, down to the veils of the pupil of the eye, the petals of the rose, the husk of the corn, the seeds of the melon, like a series of intersecting circles, with the same regularity, perfection of artistry, the same deed, and plenitude of wisdom — to do all this establishes the following with self-evident certainty:

He who performs these deeds is One and unique; His imprint is on all things.

In the same way that He is not in any place, he is present in every place.

Like the sun, all things are distant from Him, but He is close to all things.

Just as the greatest objects, such as the Milky Way and the solar system, are not difficult for Him, so too the cells in man’s blood and the thoughts that pass across his heart are not secret from Him nor beyond the reach of His power.

However great and multitudinous a thing may be, it is as easy for Him as the smallest and scarcest thing, for He creates with ease a fly on the model of an eagle, a seed in the form of a tree, a tree in the shape of a garden, a garden with the artistry of a spring, and a spring on the scale of a resurrection.

Things most valuable in their artistry He gives to us and bestows upon us most cheaply. The price that He asks of us is merely to say “In the name of God” and “Praise be to God.” In other words, the accepted price for all those numerous precious bounties is to say at the beginning of all things, “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” and at their end, “Praise be to God.”

Since this Fourth Truth is explained and proved elsewhere in the Risale-i Nur, we content ourselves here with this brief allusion.

perceived by our traveller at the second stage:

THE FIFTH TRUTH

the existence in the entirety of the cosmos, its pillars and parts and all the beings contained in it, of the most perfect order and regularity; the sameness of the substances and purposive beings that are the means of the rotation and administration of that vast kingdom and are connected to its general scheme; the fact that the Divine Names and deeds that are at work in that magnificent city, that vast exhibition, encompass and comprehend all things or most things, despite their being one within the other, and of the same nature, and the same, and their being the same Name and deed in every place; the fact that the elements and species that are the means for the administration, inhabiting, and construction of that well-adorned palace, cover the whole face of the earth in their diffusion, despite their being one within the other, of the same nature, and the same element and the same species being found everywhere — all of this demands, proves, and affirms, necessarily and self-evidently, the following:

The Maker and Disposer of this cosmos, the Monarch and Nurturer of this realm, the Master and Builder of this palace, is one, unique, sole. He has neither like nor peer, neither minister nor aide. He has neither partner nor opposite, he has neither inability nor deficiency.

Yes, order is in itself a perfect expression of unity; it demands a single orderer. It leaves no place for the assignment of partners to God, the source of dispute and dissension.

There is a wise and precise order inherent in all things, whether universal or particular, from the total scheme of the cosmos and the daily and annual rotation of the earth down to the physiognomy of man, the complex of senses in man’s head and the circulation of white and red cells in man’s blood. Nothing other than One Absolutely Powerful and Absolutely Wise can stretch out its hand intentionally and creatively toward any thing, nor interfere with it. On the contrary, all things are recipients, means of manifestation, and passive.

Now, ordering, the pursuit of certain purposes and the bestowal of regularity with a view to certain benefits, can be done only by means of knowledge and wisdom and performed only with will and choice. Certainly and in all events, this wisdom-nurturing regularity, this infinitely varied ordering of the cosmos that before our very eyes assures various benefits, proves and affirms to a self-evident degree that the Creator and Disposer of all beings is one, an agent possessing will and choice. Everything comes into being through His power, assumes a particular state through His will, and takes on a particular form through His choice.

The heat-giving lamp of this hospice that is the world is one; its candle that is the basis for the reckoning of time is one; its merciful sponge is one; its fiery cook is one; its life-giving beverage is one; its well-guarded field is one, as well as a thousand and one other instances of oneness. It follows from all of these instances of oneness that the Maker and Master of this hospice is also one, that He is extremely generous and hospitable, for He employs numerous high-ranking and great officials to serve the animate guests of His hospice.

Names such as All-Wise, Compassionate, Giver of Forms, Disposer, Quickener, and Nurturer, the impresses and manifestations of which are to be seen at work in every corner of the world, attributes such as wisdom, mercy, and grace, and acts such as formation, disposition and nurturing, are all one. They embrace every place in the utmost degree, each Name and act being present there. They also complement the imprint of each other in such a way that it is as if those Names and deeds were uniting in such fashion that power becomes identical with wisdom and mercy, and wisdom becomes identical with grace and life.

For example, as soon as the activity of the Name of Quickener appears in a thing, the activity of numerous other Names such as Creator, Giver of Form, and Provider, also appears at the same instant, everywhere, and in the same system. This of a certainty and self- evidently establishes and proves that that which is designated by the Names and the Doer of the comprehensive deeds that appear everywhere in the same fashion must also be one, single and unique. In this we believe and to this we give our assent!

The elements that are the substance and material of creation encompass the whole earth. Each of the species of creation that bears an imprint attesting unity is diffused throughout the earth in unity and, so to speak, conquers it. This also proves to the degree of being self-evident that those elements together with what they embrace, and those species, together with their separate members, are the product and property of a single being. They are the products and servants of so Unique and Powerful a One that He employs those vast and and imperious elements as obedient servants and those species diffused throughout the earth as well-disciplined soldiers.

Since this truth also has been established and explained in other places in the Risale-i Nur, we content ourselves here with this brief indication. In summary of the witnessings that he derived from these Five Truths, through the superabundance of faith and the joy of Divine unity, and in expression of his feelings, our traveller said to his heart:

Look upon the coloured page of the cosmic book;

See what forms the golden pen of power has traced.

No dark point remains for the gaze of the heart’s eye;

It is as if God has inscribed His signs with light.

Know too that:

The leaves in the world’s book are dimensions infinite;

The lines of time’s events are works innumerable.

Written on the workbench of the Preserved Tablet of reality,

A meaningful embodied word, is every being in this world.

Listen also to this:

When all things proclaim, “No god but God,” they will in unison say, “O Truth and Reality!” and beseech in harmony,

“O Living One!” Yes, in all things there is a sign pointing to the fact that He is One.

Hearkening to this his heart and soul affirmed the truth of what they heard and said, “Yes, indeed!”

In brief allusion to the Five Truths of Unity observed by our traveller through the world, our voyager through the cosmos, at this Second Stopping-Place, it was said in the Second Chapter of the First Station:

There is no god but God, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity in Necessary Existence points the witnessing of the truth of Grandeur and Sublimity, its perfection and comprehensiveness; the witnessing of the truth of the appearance of deeds in absolute fashion, in infinitude, without any limitation except that of God’s will and wisdom; the witnessing of the truth of the creation of beings in absolute multiplicity with absolute swiftness, the creation of creatures in absolute ease with absolute perfection, the origination of things made in absolute plenitude with utter perfection of artistry and value; the witnessing of the truth of the existence of beings in universal and comprehensive fashion, joined, interconnected and interrelated; the witnessing of the truth of universal order, an order incompatible with the assignation of partners to God; the witnessing of the unity of the sources of cosmic order, a unity that clearly attests the unity of their Maker; the unity of the Names and deeds that comprehend and permeate the universe; and the unity of the elements and species dispersed over the face of the earth in imperious fashion.

That world traveller voyaging through different ages chanced upon the school of the Renewer of the Second Millenium, Imam-i Rabbani, Ahmad Faruqi. He entered and listened to the lesson being taught by the Imam:

“The most important result yielded by all the Sufi paths is the unfolding of the truths of belief. The unfolding in clarity of a single truth of belief is preferable to a thousand miraculous deeds and mystical visions.” The Imam said too:

“In former times, great persons said that someone will arise from among the theologians and the scholars of the science of theology. He will prove all the truths of belief and Islam with rational proofs and the utmost clarity. I wish to be that man and maybe I am.”(*)He continued his instruction by saying that belief and the assertion of Divine unity were the foundation, substance, light and life of all human perfection; that the Hadith “An hour’s reflective thought is better than a year’s worship”()refers to reflection on belief; and that the silent mode of invocation practised in the Naqshbandi Order is a form of this most excellent reflection.

The traveller listened with utmost care. He turned and addressed himself as follows: “It is thus that this heroic Imam speaks. To increase the strength of one’s belief by as much as an atom is worth more than a ton of gnosis or other form of perfection and sweeter than the honey of a hundred visionary experiences. “On the other hand, the philosophers of Europe have leagued together for a thousand years to invent objections and doubts in their hostility to faith and the Qur’an, and to attack the believers. They wish to shake the pillars of belief that are the key, the source, the foundation of everlasting felicity, of life immortal, of eternal Paradise. We ought therefore to strengthen our belief by making it one of realization instead of one of imitation.

So come, let us advance! In order to bring the twenty-nine degrees of faith that we have found, each as powerful as a mountain, to the blessed number of thirty-three, the number of litanies that follow upon prayer, and in order to see a third stopping-place in this realm of instruction, let us knock at the door of the dominical sustenance of the animate world and open it with the key of ‘In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.’” Speaking thus he beseechingly knocked at the gate of this Third Stopping-Place, a compendium of wonders, and a spectacle of marvels. Saying, “In the Name of God, the Opener,” he opened the gate. The Third Stopping-Place became visible to him. He entered and saw that it was illumined by four great and encompassing truths that demonstrated the Divine unity as brightly as the sun.

THE FIRST TRUTH: the Truth of Opening

That is, the opening up from a single simple substance of innumerable varied and separate forms, together, everywhere, in a single instant and by a single deed, through the manifestation of the Name of Opener. Yes, in the same way that God’s creative power has opened up innumerable beings like flowers in the garden of the cosmos, and endowed each with an orderly form and distinct identity, through the manifestation of the Name of Opener, so too, although in more miraculous fashion, he has given to the four hundred thousand species of animate beings in the garden of the earth each its symmetrical, adorned and distinct form.

He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation in three darknesses. That is God, your Sustainer. His is the sovereignty; there is no god other than He. Where, then, will you turn?(*)Nought is hidden from God, neither on earth nor in the heavens. He it is Who forms you in the wombs as He wills; there is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise.(*)

As these two verses indicate, the strongest proof of Divine unity and the most remarkable miracle of Divine Power is God’s opening up of forms. Because the opening of forms is repeatedly established and expounded in different ways elsewhere in the Risale-i Nur, and particularly in the Sixth and Seventh Degrees of the First Chapter of the Second Station of this treatise, we refer the discussion of this matter to those places and restrict ourselves here to the following:

According to the testimony of botany and biology, based on profound research, there is in the opening and unfolding of forms, such comprehen siveness and artistry that other than a Single and Unique One, One Absolutely Powerful, able to see and do all things in all things, no one could undertake this comprehensive and all-embracing deed. For this deed of the unfolding of forms demands a wisdom, an attention and a comprehensiveness that are present at all times and are contained within an infinite power. This power, in turn, can be found only in that Unique Being Who administers the whole cosmos.

As is decreed in the above-quoted verses, God’s attribute of ‘opening’ expressed in the opening and creation of the forms of men from their mother’s wombs, within three darknesses, separately, with equilibrium, distinctness, and order, without any error, confusion, or mistake; this truth of the unfolding of the forms of all men and animals, all over the earth, with the same power, the same wisdom and the same artistry, is a most powerful proof of God’s unity. For to comprehend and embrace all things is itself a form of unity that leaves no room for the assignation of partners to God.

Just as the nineteen Truths of the First Chapter bearing witness to the necessary existence of God also attest the existence of the Creator through their own existence, so too they bear witness to His unity through their comprehensiveness.

Our traveller then saw the following Second Truth in the Third Stopping-Place:

THE SECOND TRUTH: the Truth of Mercifulness

We see with our own eyes that there is one who has covered the face of the earth with thousands of gifts of mercy, and made it into a feasting-place. He has laid out a spread of hundreds of thousands of the different delicious foods of Mercifulness, and made the inside of the earth a storehouse containing thousands of precious bounties of compassionateness and wisdom.

That Being sends to us also the earth, in its yearly rotation, like a ship or a train, laden with the finest of the hundreds of thousands of vital human necessities, proceeding from the World of the Unseen; and He sends to us too the spring, like a waggon carrying food and clothing for us. Thus does he nurture us, with utmost compassion. In order for us to profit from those gifts and bounties, He has moreover given us hundreds and thousands of appetities, needs, feelings, sensations and senses.

As was set forth in the Fourth Ray concerning the verse on the sufficiency of God, He has given us a stomach that can take pleasure in infinite varieties of food.

He has given us such a life that through the senses associated with it we can derive benefit from the innumerable bounties of the vast corporeal world, just as if it were some bounteous spread.

He has favoured us with the human state so that we delight in the boundless gifts of both the spiritual and material worlds, through instruments such as the intellect and the heart.

He has conveyed Islam to us so that we derive light from the boundless treasuries of the Unseen and Manifest Realms.

He has guided us to faith so that we are illumined by the innumerable lights and gifts of this world and the hereafter.

This cosmos is like a palace fitted out and adorned by the Divine quality of mercy with innumerable antiques and valuable items, which then gives to man’s hands the keys to open all the chests and chambers in that palace, as well as bestowing on man’s nature all the needs and senses that will enable him to make use of them.

This mercy that embraces this world and the hereafter, and indeed all things, is without doubt a manifestation of oneness within unity.

Just as the light of the sun is a parable of unity, through its comprehending all things that face it, every bright and transparent object that receives the reflection of the light, heat, and seven colours of the sun, is also a parable and a symbol of oneness. Hence, whoever sees its all-embracing light will conclude that the sun of this earth is one and unique. Witnessing the warm and luminous reflection of the sun in all bright objects, and even in drops of water, he will say that the oneness of the sun, or the sun itself, is present with its attributes close to all things; it is at the mirrorlike heart of all things.

So too the encompassing of all things by the extensive mercy of the Merciful One of Beauty, like a light, demonstrates the unity of that Merciful One and that He in no way has any partner. Similarly, the fact that under the veil of that all-embracing mercy the lights of most of the Merciful One’s Names and a sort of manifestation of His essence are found in everything, and especially in all living beings, and in man in particular, and the fact that this gives each individual a comprehensiveness arising from life which causes him to look to and be related to the whole universe, proves the oneness of the Merciful One and that He is present with all things and does all things in all things.

Yes, the Merciful One shows the splendour of His glory in the whole of the cosmos and all over the earth through the unity and comprehensiveness of His mercy. With the manifestation of His oneness, He gathers together in every member of all animate species, and particularly man, specimens of all His bounties, orders the tools and instruments of animate beings, and proclaims the special solicitude of His beauty to each individual, this without shattering the wholeness of the universe. As for man, it is in him that God makes known in concentrated form the various forms of His bounty.

Similarly, a melon can be said to be concentrated in its seed; the being that makes the seed must necessarily be he who makes the melon. Then, with the special balance of his knowledge and the particular law of his wisdom, he draws the seed out from it, gathers it together and clothes it in a body. Nothing other than the one and unique master craftsman who makes the melon is able to make its seed. That would be impossible.

Since through the manifestation of Mercifulness the cosmos becomes like a tree or a garden, the earth becomes like a fruit or a melon, and man becomes like a seed, of a certainty the Creator and Sustainer of the smallest animate being must be the Creator of all the earth and all the cosmos.

In Short: just as the making and unfolding from a simple substance of the regular and orderly forms of all beings through the truth of Opening, which is comprehensive, proves unity to the point of being self-evident, so too the truth of Mercifulness, which encompasses all things, through its nurturing of all animate beings that come into existence and enter the life of this world, particularly the newly arrived, with the utmost order and regularity, causing all necessities to reach them, forgetting none of them, this same mercy reaching all individuals everywhere at the same instant demonstrates both unity, and oneness within unity.

Since the Risale-i Nur is a manifestation of the name of All-Wise and the name of Compassionate, and the various points and manifestations of the essence of mercy are explained and established in numerous places throughout the Risale-i Nur, we will be content here with this indication of a drop from the ocean, and cut short an extremely long story.

Our traveller then witnessed the following Third Truth in the Third Stopping- Place

THE THIRD TRUTH: the Truth of Disposing and Administering

That is, to administer with complete order and equilibrium both the awesome and swift-moving heavenly bodies and imperious, interfering elements, and the needy, weak denizens of earth; to cause them to aid each other; to administer them jointly with each other; to take all necessary measures concerning them; and to make this vast world like a perfect kingdom, a magnificent city, a well-adorned palace.

Leaving side the vast spheres of this imperious and merciful administration, since it is explained and proved in important sections of the Risale-i Nur such as the Tenth Word, we will show, by means of a comparison, a single page and stage of that administration as it manifests itself in the spring on the face of the earth.

Let us suppose, for example, that some wondrous world conqueror assembled an army from four hundred thousand different groups and nationalities, and supplied the clothes and weapons, the instructions and dismissals and salaries of every group and nationality, separately and variously, without any defect or shortcoming, without error or mistake, at the proper time, without any delay or confusion, with the utmost regularity and in most perfect form, no cause other than the extraordinary power of that wondrous commander could stretch out is hand to attempt that vast, complex, subtle, balanced, multitudinous and just administration. Were it to stretch out its hand, it would destroy the equilibrium and cause confusion.

So too we see with our own eyes that an unseen hand creates and administers every spring a magnificent army composed of four hundred thousand different species. In the autumn —an example of the day of resurrection— it dismisses three hundred thousand out of those four hundred thousand species of plants and animals from their duties, and they go on leave through the activity of death and in the name of decease.. In spring —a sample of the gathering that follows resurrection— it constructs three hundred thousand examples of raising from the dead in the space of a few weeks, with the utmost order and discipline. In the case of the tree, four such resurrections take place with respect to the tree itself, its leaves, its flowers, and its fruits. After showing spring to our eyes exactly like the preceding one, it gives each species and group in that army of glory that contains four hundred thousand different species its appropriate sustenance and provision, its defensive weapons and distinctive garments, its orders and dismissals, and all the tools and instruments it needs, with the utmost order and regularity, without error or slip, without confusion or omission, in unexpected fashion and at the proper time. It thus proves its unity, oneness, uniqueness, and infinite power and boundless mercy within perfection of dominicality, sovereignty and wisdom, and writes with the pen of Divine Determining this proclamation of Divine unity on the face of the earth, on the page of every spring.

After reading only a single page of this proclamation of one spring, our traveller said to himself: “The torment of Hell-fire is pure justice for those who commit the error of denying resurrection. For such denial would be to refute the numerous promises and to deny the power of One Powerful and Compelling, a Wrathful One of Glory, Who has promised and assured all of His prophets thousands of times and set forth in thousands of verses of the Qur’an, explicity and by way of allusion, that He will bring about a resurrection and gathering far easier for Him than the thousands of miraculous gatherings that occur every spring, each more wondrous than the Supreme Gathering.” His soul responded: “We believe in what you say.”

Dünya yolcusunun üçüncü menzilde müşahede ettiği

THE FOURTH TRUTH, which forms the Thirty-Third Degree:the Truth of Compassionateness and Bestowal of Provision

That is, the giving, over the whole face of the globe, within the earth, in the air above it and the ocean around it, to all animate beings, especially those endowed with spirit, and among them especially the impotent, the weak and the young, all of their necessary sustenance, material and immaterial, in the most solicitous manner, deriving it from dry and rude soil, from solid, bonelike dry pieces of wood, and in the case of the most delicate of all forms of sustenance, from between blood and urine, at the proper time, in orderly fashion, without any omission or confusion, in front of our eyes, by an unseen hand.

Yes, the verse, God is the Provider, the firm possessor of strength,(*)restricts to God the task of sustaining and providing, and the verse, There is no moving thing on earth but depends on God for its sustenance; He knows its resting-place and storage-place; all is in a book perspicuous(*)provides a dominical guarantee and pledge to furnish provision for all men and animals. Similarly, the verse, The beasts do not carry their sustenance; God sustains them and you, and He is All- Hearing, All-Knowing,(*)establishes and proclaims that it is God Who guarantees and provides for all impotent, powerless, weak and wretched creatures that are unable to secure their own sustenance, in an unexpected fashion, indeed from the Unseen or even out of nothing; it is He for example Who provides for insects on the ocean bed and their young. This proclamation is directed in particular to those men who worship causes and are unaware that it is He Who bestows provision from behind the veil of causality. Numerous other verses of the Qur’an and innumerable pieces of cosmic evidence unanimously demonstrate that it is the compassionateness of a single Glorious Provider that nurtures all animate beings.

Now the trees require a certain form of sustenance but have neither power nor will. They remain therefore in their places, trusting in God, and their provision comes hastening to them. So too the sustenance of infants flows to their mouths from wondrous small pumps, aided by the solici tude and tenderness of their mothers. Then when the infants acquire a little power and will, the milk ceases. These various instances clearly prove that licit sustenance is not proportionate to will and power, but comes in relation to weakness and impotence, which induce trust in God.

Will, power and cleverness frequently incite greed, which is a source of loss, and often push certain learned men toward a form of beggary, whereas by contrast the trusting weakness of the boorish, crude and common man may cause him to attain riches. The proverb, “How many a learned man has striven in vain, and how many an ignoramus gained rich provision,” establishes that licit provision is not won by power and will, but by a mercy that finds working and striving acceptable; it is bestowed by a tenderness that takes pity on need. Now provision and sustenance is of two kinds:

The First is true and natural provision, that required for life; this is guaranteed by the Sustainer. It is indeed so regular and well-ordered that this natural provision, stored in the body in the form of fat and other things, is enough to ensure survival for at least twenty days, even if nothing is eaten. Those who apparently die of hunger before the twenty or thirty days are up and before the provision stored up in their body is exhausted, die in reality not from a lack of provision, but from a disease arising from lack of caution and the disturbance of fixed habit.

The Second Form of Provision: metaphorical and artifical provision, arising due to addiction from habit, wastefulness and misuse, but acquiring the appearance of necessity. This form is not guaranteed by the Sustainer, but depends on His generosity: sometimes He may give it, sometimes He may not give it.

With respect to this second form of provision and sustenance, happy is he who regards his frugality —a source of happiness and pleasure— contentment and licit striving, as a form of worship and active prayer for sustenance. He accepts God’s bounty gratefully and appreciatively, and passes his life in happpy fashion.

Wretched is he who on account of prodigality —the source of wretchedness and loss— and greed, abandons licit striving, knocks at every door, passes his life in sloth, oppression and wretchedness, and indeed puts his own life to death.

In the same way that a stomach requires sustenance, so too the subtle capacities and senses of man, his heart, spirit, intelligence, eye, ear and mouth, also request their sustenance from the Compassionate Provider and gratefully receive it. To each of them separately and in appropriate form is presented such provision from the treasury of mercy as will rejoice them and give them pleasure. Indeed, the Compassionate Provider, in order to give to them provision in more generous measure has created each of man’s subtle capacities —eye and ear, heart, imagination, and intellect— in the form of a key to His treasury of mercy.

For example, the eye is a key to the treasury containing such precious jewels as the fairness and beauty to be seen on the face of the universe, and the same holds true of all the others mentioned; they all benefit through faith. To resume after our digression:

The All-Powerful and Wise One Who created this cosmos created also life as a comprehensive summary of the cosmos, and concentrated all of His purposes and the manifestations of His Names therein. So too, within the realm of life, he made of provision a comprehensive centre of activity and created within animate beings the taste for provision, thus causing animate beings to respond to His dominicality and love with a permanent and universal gratitude, thankfulness, and worship that is one of the significant purposes and instances of wisdom inherent in the creation of the universe.

For example, it is one of the activities of dominicality to cause every area of the broad realm of dominicality to rejoice — the heavens are caused to rejoice with the angels and spirit beings, the World of the Unseen with spirits, and the material world, particularly the air and the earth, with the existence of all animate beings, particularly birds, great and small, at all times and places. Through the wisdom of this causing to rejoice and the infusion of life and spirit, animals and men are, as it were, whipped by the need for provision and the pleasure they take therein to pursue their provision and sustenance, thus being delivered from sloth. This too is one of the wise activities of dominicality. Were it not for such significant instances of wisdom, the provision destined for animals would be caused instinctively to hasten toward them to satisfy their needs, without any effort on their part, just as provision and sustenance is caused to hasten toward the tree.

Were there to be an eye capable of witnessing and comprehending the whole surface of the earth at one time, in order to perceive the beauties of the Names of Compassionate and Provider and the witness they bear to Divine unity, it would see what sweet beauty is contained in the tender and solicitous manifestation of the Compassionate Provider Who sends to the caravans of animals at the end of winter, when their provision is about to be exhausted, extremely delicious, abundant and varied foods and bounties, drawn exclusively from His unseen treasury of mercy, as succour from the unseen and Divine generosity, placed in the hands of plants, the crowns of trees, and the breasts of mothers. The possessor of that all-seeing eye would realize the following:

The making of a single apple, and the generous giving of it to a man as true sustenance and provision, can be accomplished only by a Being Who causes the seasons, the nights and the days to rotate, Who causes the globe to revolve like a cargo ship, and thus brings the fruits of the seasons within reach of those needy guests of the earth who stand waiting for them. For the stamp of its nature, the seal of wisdom, the imprint of eternal besoughtedness, the signet of mercy that is to be found on the surface of the apple, is to be found also on all apples and other fruits, plants and animals. Hence the true Master and Maker of the apple is bound to be the Glorious Sovereign, the Beauteous Creator of all the inhabitants of the world, who are the peers, the congeners and the brothers of the apple; of the vast earth that is the garden of the apple; of the tree of the cosmos that is its factory; of the seasons that are its workshop; and of the spring and summer that are its place of maturing.

In other words, every fruit is a seal of unity that makes known the Writer and Maker of the earth, its tree, and of the book of the universe, its garden; it demonstrates His unity, and shows to the number of fruits, the seal affixed to the decree of unity.

Since the Risale-i Nur is a manifestation of the Names of All-Compassionate and All-Wise, and numerous flashes and mysteries of the truth of Compassionateness have been expounded and proved in many parts of the Risale-i Nur, we leave further discussion of the matter to those parts and content ourselves with this brief indication, out of a vast treasury, on account of the unfavourable circumstances from which we are now suffering.

Our traveller now says: “Praise be to God! I have seen and heard Thirty-Three Truths bearing witness to the necessary existence and unity of the Creator and Sovereign I was everywhere seeking and enquiring after. Each of the truths is bright as the sun and leaves no darkness behind. It is as strong and unshakeable as a mountain. Each of them, with its verifications, bears decisive witness to His existence, and with its comprehensiveness proves His unity in manifest fashion. While proving implicitly all the pillars of faith, the totality and consensus of these truths causes our belief to advance from imitation to realization, from realization to knowledge of certainty, from knowledge of certainty to vision of certainty, and from vision of certainty to absolute certainty. Praise be to God; this is from the bounty of my Sustainer.”

Praise be to God Who guided us to this;

verily we would not have been guided unless God had guided us. The messengers of God have come to us with the truth.(*)

In extremely brief allusion to the lights of belief derived by our inquisitive traveller from the four sublime truths he witnessed at the Third Stopping-Place, it was said in the Second Chapter of the First Station, concerning the truths of the Third Stopping- Place:

There is no god other than God, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity in Necessary Existence points the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of opening, through the unfolding of different forms of four hundred thousand species of living beings, perfect and without defect, according to the testimony of biology and botany; the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of mercifulness, all-embracing and regular, without any deficiency, as the eye can see; the witnessing of the sublimity of the truth of administering, that encompasses in orderly fashion all living beings, without error or defect; the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensivness of the truth of compassionateness and sustaining, embracing all consumers of sustenance, at every time of need, without any mistake or forgetfulness; Glory be unto Him, the Provider, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Solicitous, the Generous; His gifts are universal, and His Generosity is all-embracing; there is no god but He!

Glory be unto You; we have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(*)

O our Sustainer! For the sake of ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,’ O God, O Merciful One, O Compassionate One! Bestow peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad, his Family and all his Companions, to the number of all the letters in the Risale-i Nur, multiplied by ten times the number of minutes in all of our lives in this world and the hereafter, and then by the number of particles in my body throughout the course of my life. Forgive me, and those who aid me in sincerity in the copying and distribution of the Risale-i Nur, and our fathers, our masters, our shaykhs, our sisters, our brothers, and the sincere students of the Risale-i Nur, particularly those who write and copy this treatise; by Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful, Amen. The conclusion of our prayer is, ‘Praise be to God, the Sustainer of All The Worlds!’

NOTE

Since the other parts of the Risale-i Nur were not available in the place that saw the composition of the foregoing treatise, which was of necessity written down here, certain important matters of The Words and The Flashes have been mentioned also in The Supreme Sign, in what is an apparent repetition. In order to have the students of the Risale-i Nur in this area write a complete Risale-i Nur in miniature, we nonetheless had them write down all the present treatise.

The revised copy of this rough draft was written by a certain blessed person. Even though he was ignorant of such matters, we saw in the copy prepared by him a subtle and profound correspondence of the letters: there were six hundred and sixty-six alifs(*)written at the beginning of the lines in his copy.

This number corresponds fully with the value according to the abjad of the title given to this treatise by Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him), Ayat al-Kubra (The Supreme Sign), and thus demonstrates the suitability of this title for the treatise. We also understood this numerical correspondence to be an indication that this treatise is a flash derived from the light of the verses of the Qur’an for they are six thousand six hundred and sixty- six in number.

Said Nursî

ON THE PURPOSE OF THE RISALE-I NUR

Today, I listened to an imaginary exchange of question and answer. Let me set forth for you a summary of it.

Someone said: “The great mobilization and complete preparedness of the Risale-i Nur for the sake of belief and the proving of the Divine unity is constantly increasing. One hundredth part of its contents is enough to silence the most obstinate atheist; why then this further feverish mobilization and preparation?”

They answered him: “The Risale-i Nur is not only repairing some minor damage or some small house; it is repairing vast damage and the all-embracing citadel which contains Islam, the stones of which are the size of mountains. And it is not striving to reform only a private heart and an individual conscience; it is striving to cure with the medicines of the Qur’an and belief and the Qur’an’s miraculousness the collective heart and generally-held ideas, which have been breached in awesome fashion by the tools of corruption prepared and stored up over a thousand years, and the general conscience, which is facing corruption through the destruction of the foundations, currents, and marks of Islam which are the refuge of all and particularly the mass of believers. “Certainly, for such universal breaches and awesome wounds proofs and equipment of the utmost certitude and the strength of mountains, and well-proven medicines and numberless drugs of the effectiveness of a thousand remedies are necessary. Emerging at this time from the miraculousness of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, the Risale-i Nur performs this function, and is also the means of advancing and progressing through the infinite degrees of belief.”A long discussion ensued to which I listened, offering infinite thanks. I curtail the matter here.

Said Nursî

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The Sixth Ray ⇐ | The Rays | ⇒ The Ninth Ray

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